Share Some Of That Pie

Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco just signed the latest, greatest quarterback contract. It's only going to get worse. Or, better if you're a quarterback. Aaron Rodgers, Matt Ryan, Matthew Stafford, Sam Bradford, even Tony Romo will be raking in great sums of money in the coming years. Flacco, while a terrific quarterback with a Super Bowl title, is still working toward elite status. He doesn't have to lead the Ravens to another Super Bowl championship to join the elite group. Rogers, Brees, and Manning each have only one title. Flacco still has to show the consistency and and continued production that the truly elite quarterbacks do as a matter of routine. Despite his position, in my opinion, on the outside of elite status, Flacco deserves the big contract. It's what quarterbacks get. Unless he gets fat and lazy with his successes and new riches, he's well on his way to joining the elites. It's only a matter of time.

There's only so much pie to go around. All NFL salaries are going up. The quarterback salaries are simply going up faster than the rest. With the salary cap holding way too steady to support such increases the quarterbacks are eating far too much of the money pie. Stafford, benefiting greatly from a pre-CBA contract, is eating up more than 16% of the Detroit Lions pie. That doesn't seem fair when Calvin Johnson has to eat too. Hell, just that pass-catch combination probably takes up about a quarter of the team's cap space. That's too much even for the most dominant passing combination in the league. The current quarterback salaries may end up turning NFL teams into something more like college teams. Nearly every position but the quarterback is turned over every four years. Free agency made it difficult enough for teams to keep their players. With so much invested in the quarterback position teams have little left even for the players that they could have kept a decade ago. The NFL is a passing league and there's no danger in that slowing. It's only growing. Quarterbacks are going to get paid. All the other players have to tighten their belts and count their pennies. The Minnesota Vikings are more fortunate than most teams, for now. The team is one of the few, maybe only, run-first teams. Running back Adrian Peterson drives them. Quarterback Christian Ponder is struggling to survive on his post-CBA rookie contract. With Peterson grinding out the yards, Ponder may not put up the gaudy passing numbers that usually brings a huge second contract. By then the gigantic TV money might finally boost the salary cap up enough to afford all the quarterbacks.

One of the great draws of football is it's team play. When players start getting paid to play this incredible team sport, I'd prefer to see those players share that pie a little more equally. The quarterback can't do squat without the big guys up front and the fast guys out wide. It's a team game. Share the ball. Share the pie.