Let's temper our expectations for Flacco
Come Monday morning, it will be easy to sit back and analyze Joe Flacco's flaws, regardless of the result of tomorrow's season opener.
Let's get this out of the way now - Flacco's a rookie. He's going to make mistakes. He might make a lot of them. And it will be easy to bash him, claim he's a bust, and blame the Ravens for drafting Kyle Boller version 2.
But we all need to realize that Flacco likely isn't going to be a star right away. Very few are. There are rare exceptions, like Ben Roethlisberger leading the Steelers to the AFC Championship game and winning AFC Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2004.
However, for every Ben Roethlisberger, there are 30 rookie quarterbacks who struggle.
It's hard to imagine now, but one of those was Peyton Manning.
The Colts took Manning with the first overall pick in the 1998 draft. Here are his numbers for his first career start, which came on Week 1 of his rookie season: 21-for-37 for 302 yards, 1 TD, 3 INT.
His numbers for the season? Peyton averaged under 250 passing yards a game, and threw 28 interceptions to just 26 touchdowns.
Here's a passage from an article by Glenn Dickey of ProFootballWeekly.com, written in 1998, Manning's rookie season:
Nobody has ever been better-prepared than Manning to play quarterback in the NFL. He played four years in a high-level collegiate program at Tennessee, and his father, Archie, was a star NFL quarterback who was able to advise him on the pressure he would face.And yet, even with that background, Manning struggles. He played somewhat better than [Ryan] Leaf but still ranked near the bottom of the AFC passer ratings in the early weeks. (Leaf was right at the bottom.) One magazine writer quipped that Manning's favorite receiver was the left cornerback, as he averaged nearly three interceptions a game.
We all know where Manning is now.
In his first career start, Flacco is playing an underrated Bengals secondary. He's got an inexperienced offensive line in front of him, and even if Willis McGahee is healthy enough to play, Cincinnati is going to stack the line of scrimmage and put pressure on Flacco to air it out.
We tend to make knee-jerk reactions when it comes to top draft picks. It's only natural to want instant results.
Flacco's got talent, he's very coachable, and he works incredibly hard. Let's give him some time to grow into the job, regardless of how he plays tomorrow.
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