It seems that all of the idiots/pundits who predict the Ravens to "take a step back" this year cite a "sophmore slump"form Flacco as one of their main reasons.

I guess they fail to realize the improvement Flacco made as the season progressed, and also the fact that in the NFL at the QB position the "sophomore slump" is a figment of many's imagination. Matter of fact,most good QBs significantly improve from their first full season to the next, or at worst have the same or slightly lower numbers than the first year.

Also the fact that Flacco didnt exactly light it up and only put up only about 2,900 yds passing lends more to the argument that if anything his numbers and performance will be better this year and not worse.

Lets take a look at some of the top QB's in the game today and see what happened in year 2....

Peyton Manning - All stats jumped significantly.

Tom Brady - Comp % and rating about the same,huge jumps in Yards and TD-INT ratio

Drew Brees - Only played in 12 games 2nd year,rating was 6 points lower.

Phillip Rivers - All stats dropped off slightly.Rating down by 10 points

Jen Roethlisberger - Only played in 12 games 2nd year. Rating exactly the same.

Jay Cutler - Most stats about the same but 1000 yd jump in yards.

Donavan McNabb - All stats jumped significantly.(only 12 games 1st year)

Carson Palmer - All stats jumped significantly. (only 13 games 1st year)

Eli Manning - Only 9 games rookie year,but rating and comp % both jumped 2nd year.

Matt Hassleback - All stats up significantly (only played in 13 games 1st year)

Brett Farve - Slight dropoff in all stats.


In almost every case their performance went up, in some cases like Manning and Cutler by a LOT. In the other cases where the performance was the same or slightly lower their first year stats were fantastic and alittle above the norm.For example Farve had a 64% comp rate his first year but dropped off to about 61 his second. Same with Rivers, had a great comp % his first year that slightly fell off.

The point is this sophmore slump bullsh%^ is just that, and there is absolutely no history of even a moderate dropoff from year one to year 2. If there is a "dropoff" is usually by less than 5% in all areas or rather insignificant.

The bottom line is most QB's were more accurate, threw many more TD's to INT's and threw for significantly more yards in their 2nd year.