Flacco can name his price up to whatever the exclusive rights franchise tag is. That's 20 and a little change I believe. He will get whatever he wants up to and including that.

If the Ravens offer less than that Flacco will never accept. Then they'll need to apply the tag, take the 20m cap hit, and keep him under control for a year. They'll be essentially betting that he won't perform at the level of his past 4 games in 2013. Oh, and by the way, Ozzie will have to totally gut the team to fit under the 2013 cap, and won't be able to sign a single free agent.

The non-exclusive tag is not an option. There are 10-15 teams in the league that will trip over themselves to give up 2 first rounders for Flacco, and many of them have more than enough cap space to give him what he wants. Then, the Ravens would be in the same problem they're already in: give him what he wants or lose him. They would need to fold again and match the offer.

So, the bottom line is that the Ravens have to give him whatever he pleases or watch him walk and take the team's playoff chances for the next few years with him. It's very interesting; Ozzie has never been in this position. He's completely powerless and gets to choose taking his medicine now or waiting until the last minute (as usual) and gutting the entire team along the way.

The FO must absolutely be kicking themselves for not paying Flacco what he wanted last August. Obviously that's outcome bias, but he had them over a barrel then and they chose to bet against him and they lost huge. They won't be able to do that again.