No rookie quarterback has led his team past the first round in the playoffs
When Joe Flacco steps onto the field at M&T Bank Stadium this afternoon, he’s facing a much more daunting opponent than the Cincinnati Bengals: history.
After all, history indicates Flacco and the Ravens have a much greater chance at failing than succeeding this fall by starting a rookie quarterback in their first game of the season.
Since the start of the 1982 season, 13 teams have started a rookie quarterback. The results: Three have led their teams to first-round playoff losses and none of the remaining 10 led their teams to more than seven wins.
The last team to start a rookie quarterback in its season opener was Chicago in 2005, when Kyle Orton led the Bears to a record of 11-5 en route to winning the NFC North Division title. Two years earlier, Kyle Boller started in the season opener a few months after he was taken with the 19th pick in the 2003 draft and the Ravens won the AFC North title with a 10-6 record.
Boller, however, started just the first nine games — going 5-3 — before suffering a season-ending thigh injury, causing Anthony Wright to finish the season.
“What difference does it make?” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said. “Joe’s our guy, and we think he can win for us.”
Harbaugh is hoping Flacco, who the team selected with the 18th overall pick in April’s draft, can finally bring stability to a position in which 15 players have failed to emerge as a top-flight quarterback since the franchise arrived in Baltimore in 1996.
“I would like to see Joe sit this year because this team is going to win with defense, special teams and an offense that can’t make too many mistakes,” said Trent Dilfer, who quarterbacked the Ravens to Super Bowl XXXV and is now an analyst for ESPN.
Flacco claims he’s ready to prove he can thrive against the Cincinnati Bengals, Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns just as he excelled against Towson and Navy when he starred at Delaware last fall.
Flacco wasn’t expected to start this season, as just a few weeks ago Harbaugh claimed he was third on the depth chart behind Troy Smith and Kyle Boller. But the Ravens’ three-man competition became a last-man standing situation when Boller was placed on injured reserve on Wednesday with a severely injured throwing shoulder and Smith was hospitalized for several days with a tonsil infection, which has caused him to lose more than 20 pounds.
“It’s faster than I expected, but this is what I wanted all along,” Flacco said. “Things happen funny. I’ve gotten my opportunity. It’s up to me to go out and play.”
But the Ravens are confident Flacco has the skills needed to succeed.
“When we worked out Joe in March prior to the draft, we pointed out some concerns with his mechanics and he adjusted immediately,” Eric DeCosta, the Ravens director of college scouting, said. “If someone with that much talent is that willing to listen then I feel he will be just fine.”
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