With Joe Flacco struggling in recent seasons, the Baltimore Ravens might be looking to the future. The Ravens already added Robert Griffin III to the quarterback room and could import a rookie in next week's draft.
For his part, the longtime starter isn't fretting over the possibility of general manager Ozzie Newsome using his final first-round pick on a quarterback.
"It is what it is. It's a business," Flacco said, via the team's official website. "Eventually, at some point, that's going to have to happen. It's not really for me to worry about."
Flacco has four years remaining on his contract, but after this season Baltimore could get out of the deal, and the dead money on the salary cap is not prohibitive if they moved on in 2020.
The 33-year-old struggled through a back injury last offseason and put up one of the worst years of his career. Flacco completed 64.1 percent of 352 pass attempts for 3,141 yards and a career-low 5.7 yard per attempt average with 18 TDs and 13 interceptions.
Playing in an offense that doesn't exactly accentuate his skill set with a mishmash collection of talent surrounding him, Flacco has been an inefficient mess the past couple years. With the light at the end of the contract tunnel, the Ravens must think toward the future.
Like any team leader, the QB isn't looking past this season.
"I come in here and you worry about what's here and now, and doing your job -- which is for me right now, getting guys out there working hard and making sure we're moving towards our goal of getting to that championship," Flacco said.
It's Flacco's job to chase a playoff bid after three seasons missing the tournament. It's management's job to look toward the future. Those two tasks don't have to live on incongruent planes.
