Ravens quarterback Kyle Boller wishes he could turn back time. If he could, he would go back to his rookie season in 2003 and make sure he had a chance to learn how to be an NFL quarterback from the sidelines instead of starting right away.
Boller, the last quarterback in the NFL to start his first game as a rookie, wonders whether the Ravens will take a similar course with Joe Flacco, who the team selected with the 18th overall pick in the NFL Draft.
Coincidentally, Flacco was taken one pick ahead of where the Ravens selected Boller five years earlier.
“Every guy?s situation is different,” Boller said, “If it was up to me, I?d rather learn, but I also wanted to play and if you?re ready to play then you should play. I just don?t think I was ready to play but at the time, I played and you deal with it.”
Boller enters the season as the Ravens? senior signal caller after backup Troy Smith joined the team as a fifth-round pick last year. Boller and Smith, who won the Heisman Trophy in 2007, took turns running the offense Friday during the team?s second mini camp under coach John Harbaugh.
“Competition is going to be great for our offense and for our team,” Boller said. “It?s going to bring the best out ofall of our players and I?m looking forward to it.”
Harbaugh said it is an open competition for the starting quarterback job, one that Flacco will be involved in beginning next week when the Ravens hold their only mandatory mini camp. Harbaugh, however, added no decision would be made until training camp in July.
“These two guys take it as a challenge just like anybody would at any position,” said Harbaugh of Boller and Smith. “If we had a crystal ball we would know who the quarterback of the future is going to be. The quarterback of the future is going to be the one that gives us the best chance to win games in the future. When you have a first round pick come in that?s the expectation for him. We drafted [Flacco] because we believed he was that guy. Is he going to be that guy? That?s up to him and we?ll find out.”
Smith said he understands why the Ravens selected a quarterback in the first round, but is going to do everything he can to prove to the coaching staff he?s still their man.
Last season, Smith completed 40-of-76 passes (52.6 percent) for 452 yards and two touchdowns. Boller completed 168-of-275 passes (61.1 percent) for 1,743 yards, nine touchdowns and 10 interceptions. Flacco completed 331-of-521 passes (63.5 percent) for 4,263 yards, 23 touchdowns and five interceptions during his senior season at Delaware.
“The organization has made a decision to go though this route and I think it?s a good one,” Smith said “Last season we had to use all three quarterbacks and if the chance comes [Flacco] is going to be a good quarterback.”
