Coming into his sixth NFL season, Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco is a Super Bowl MVP, the man behind one of the greatest sustained postseason passing performances in NFL history, and the proud owner of a six-year, $120.6 million contract. signed on March 1, which includes $52 million guaranteed, and a $29 million signing bonus. That's a lot to handle for a guy who finished 17th overall in Football Outsiders season-cumulative metrics and sixteenth in per-play efficiency in 2012 , but those aren't the stats that matter. When it comes to Flacco, the stats that matter are the ones he put up after former offensive coordinator Cam Cameron was fired on Dec. 10 , and quarterbacks coach Jim Caldwell took the reins. Under Cameron, Flacco was too often tasked to find receivers limited by basic isolation route concepts. The change to Caldwell saw the Ravens use more route combinations, and other methods that allowed open targets. In the seven games Flacco played under Caldwell's auspices, he put up some crazy numbers -- 122 completions in 210 attempts for 1,737 yards, 15 touchdowns, and one interception. That included his 11-touchdown, zero-pick postseason, matched in NFL history by Joe Montana in 1989, and nobody else. It was the first time in Flacco's career that the fully-developed version of the quarterback was matched by a truly diverse and modern offense, and the late run convinced the Ravens that he was worth the kind of scratch given to the best at his position. Now, with Ray Lewis and Ed Reed gone, and the emphasis put on the offense (specifically the passing offense) more than at any other time in the franchise's history, it's all on Flacco to remain at that mythical "next level." Flacco seemed to know which questions were coming after Tuesday's practice, which marked the first day of the Ravens' 2013 training camp.
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