Quote Originally Posted by Ngata Nother Suggs View Post
The question I think that people honestly need to ask themselves is how many more games do you think they could win with one or the other. Rice is an NFL superstar. Flacco is not. A decent veteran free agent QB could play at Flacco's current level if he doesn't like playing out his rookie deal deciding he'll become a FA. The Ravens could survive. There aren't a lot players like Ray Rice. There are a lot of quarterbacks like Flacco.
Until this year, I don't think that was true. His progression over his 1st 3 years was solid. This year, he has regressed a bit (although not as much as some want to make it out to be, IMO). The question for the Ravens is whether that is a trend or an aberration?

While I think they know he has some warts, I do think that they do believe in him. As such, there is no reason to let him play out his contract. Doing so would put them at his mercy as a pending FA - either give me what I want or tag me. Neither of those options would be appealing from a Cap perspective.

So, IMO, it needs to get done before the start of next season. It can wait for now (being Feb-May), but needs to get done over the summer. They've told him they want to re-sign him, but he's got to wait (like everyone else). The summer should be the end of that wait.