Ravens Top 10 Draft Picks Of the Last 10 Years: #1 Joe Flacco
Feb 3, 2013; New Orleans, LA, USA; Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco (5) celebrates with the Vince Lombardi Trophy after defeating the San Francisco 49ers 34-31 in Super Bowl XLVII at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports
With The Draft upcoming, i thought it would be appropriate to take a look at some of the shining accomplishment and most glaring faults in terms of draft picks.
Now That I Have Recapped the Ravens 10 worst draft picks, lets get to the good stuff, Here are the Ravens 10 best draft picks of the past 10 years. Like with the worst picks, I have a few parameters here.
- Players who signed a second contract with the team were given priority over those who did not.
- Non Starters were not included. There are way to many good picks for me to include players who don’t start, at least occasionally.
- Players on the Superbowl squad were given the edge over players who were not.
- Proven commodities are worth more than potential success.
Those arent shackling restraints, but because the Ravens draft so well, this was actually a bit of a challenge. There are probably a lot of player that should have made this list but didn’t, just because there wasn’t enough room on the list to include everyone.
Maybe You will agree with this, maybe you wont, but my top pick for the Ravens over the past 10 years is Joe Flacco. It isnt even close.
Flacco probably isnt the best player the Ravens have ever picked. Haloti Ngata is certainly better. Marshal Yanda Ray Rice and Terrell Suggs probably are as well. Despite that Flacco is still the Ravens top pick.
This is all about importance of position. We all know quarterback is the most important position in Football, probably in all of sports. That is why Flacco is an easy pick for best pick, just like Kyle Boller was an easy pick for Worst pick.
The Ravens would never have sniffed the Superbowl were it not for Flacco. Period.
In a year when every other player in my top four was statistically down compared to their normal production, it was Flacco that caught fire(for the second straight playoffs) and carried the team to a championship. he stepped up his game in the playoffs, like he does every year, and he rivaled the best performances of the best players in NFL history. tied for most TDs in a postseason with Kurt Warner and Joe Montana. Only Joe Montana equaled Flacco in that they each threw 11 TDs to 0 INTs, a level of efficiency that no one else has ever come close to.
Flacco also is a flat out winner. He has more wins over the past five years than any other player in the league. More wins than any other Quarterback has ever had in his first five years.
Flacco, because of the importance of the position, is the runaway winner of my top pick of the past decade for the Ravens.