The Baltimore Ravens Made A $30 Million Blunder By Not Re-Signing Joe Flacco Last Summer

Joe Flacco and the Ravens were close to agreeing on a six-year, ~$90 million contract last year, Robert Klemko of USA Today reports.

Instead, the two sides put it off, Flacco won Super Bowl MVP, and Baltimore gave him a six-year, $120 million deal last month.

According to Klemko, the difference between the two sides last year was only $166,000 per year:

"That's $1 million in total value over the course of a six-year offer that would have paid Flacco in the neighborhood of $35 million in guarantees. Instead, he played out his contract, won the Super Bowl and last week signed a six-year deal with $52 million guaranteed and up to $120.6 million in total."

So winning the Super Bowl bumped Flacco's guaranteed money by $17 million, and raised his annual salary from $15 million to $20 million.

It looks like a major blunder in retrospect, but you can't really fault the Ravens here. Coming into last year, Flacco wasn't considered a quarterback in the class of Tom Brady or Drew Brees. There was just as good a chance of him regressing as winning Super Bowl MVP.

Still, it was a big missed opportunity to get a QB for under market value.