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Joe Flacco When to Start?
by Sam Monson
28/8/2008
 The Baltimore Ravens drafted Joe Flacco 18th overall in this year’s NFL Draft, and they now find themselves faced with the question that plagues every franchise with a newly drafted QB When to start him?
The debate still rages in the NFL whether it is better for a QB to be thrown in early, to take his lumps, and learn on the job, or whether he should sit and learn for a while with a clipboard before taking over the starting job.
Some say that the only way a quarterback can really learn in the NFL is by playing, and others suggest that a year on the bench can help a quarterback adjust to the NFL more than any game-time baptism. One side points to Peyton Manning as the proof of their argument, the other side points to Carson Palmer.
Whilst there is no agreed answer to this whole argument, it seems unlikely to be a coincidence that the only two quarterbacks drafted since 2000 in the first round to have started on opening day are David Carr and Kyle Boller both synonymous with the word ‘Bust’.
There is obviously an adjustment period for any quarterback coming out of college and into the NFL. You hear all the time about the speed of the game, and the time when a young quarterback finally starts to ‘get it’ is the time when the game starts to slow down for them, the time when they begin to adjust to the new level of speed.
That adjustment period is always going to be different for every player, and some players are undoubtedly more adept than others, requiring less time, but there are also certain objective factors that will influence this time period that you can look at before you decide when you’re going to throw in your young quarterback.
Small division college quarterbacks are going to have a bigger leap to make from the competition they faced in college to what they’re going to see on an NFL field. If you’re facing the likes of USC in college you’re going to be better used to NFL speed with the talent they possess on their roster than if you’re playing Middle Tennessee State on a regular basis.
Luckily for the Ravens they have a blueprint for Flacco staring them in the face: Tarvaris Jackson.
The similarities between Joe Flacco and the Vikings starting quarterback are remarkable:
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Both quarterbacks have an absolute cannon for an arm, and are amongst the strongest in the NFL.
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Both quarterbacks transferred to a lower division after failing to beat out a non-NFL caliber QB at their Div 1 school
– Joe Flacco failed to beat out Tyler Palko at Pitt
– Tarvaris Jackson lost his job to Matt Jones at Arkansas
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Both quarterbacks had solid but unspectacular college careers
– In his senior year for Alabama State, Tarvaris Jackson completed 61% of his passes for 29 TDs and 5 picks.
– In his senior year at Delaware, Joe Flacco completed 63.5% of his passes for 23 TDs and 5 picks.
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Both quarterbacks shot up draft boards after showing well before the draft.
– Flacco wowed people with his arm during the Senior Bowl week and at the Scouting Combine
– Tarvaris Jackson put in a star performance at the East-West Shrine game
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Both quarterbacks are ‘raw’ prospects taken for the tools they possess rather than what they could bring to a team right away.
 Obviously Joe Flacco is not Tarvaris Jackson (pictured right), as every player is his own man, but the similarities between the two are hard to deny, and the Ravens would do well to learn from the bumpy transition that Tarvaris Jackson has had in his young career.
Jackson is now entering his 3rd season in the NFL, and only now is he seen as being actually ready to assume the starting position for the Vikings.
When drafted, Brad Childress’ plan for Jackson was that he was to have sat on the bench for a year, maybe two, whilst the Vikings were steered by incumbent veteran Brad Johnson. Unfortunately for both Jackson and Johnson, Brad Johnson was absolutely horrific in Jackson’s rookie year, and was eventually yanked for the final two games of the season, allowing Jackson to step in and take the reins of the franchise, and throwing him into the starting role on the team before anybody had expected he would be ready.
Jackson showed both promise and rookie teething troubles in those first two games, and through his second year as a starter he was maddeningly inconsistent, leading many to question whether he is the man for the job at all.
Throwing a young quarterback out there before he is ready not only poses questions about their development, but it also puts an incredible amount of pressure on them from outside when the media and fans begin to question whether they’re capable at all, because today’s NFL simply doesn’t allow the time for a quarterback to develop on the job.
Tarvaris Jackson is now entering his 3rd season, and must show early that he has finally developed into the quarterback he is supposed to be. This is the year that Jackson was originally timetabled to take over, and because he was put in early, it’s already his make-or-break time.
The Ravens have to decide when they want to blood Joe Flacco, and if they’re taking notes from the development of Tarvaris Jackson, Flacco won’t see the field in anger during his rookie year.
Flacco needs a year at least to learn how it all works in the NFL those acute rookie errors can be avoided, not every quarterback has to play terribly when they first take the field there’s no sense in risking the development of your franchise quarterback on the off-chance that he’s Peyton Manning, only growing stronger for the lumps he takes in that first year. Especially since Peyton came from national college powerhouse Tennesseenot Delaware.
Baltimore Ravens take heed.
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