By Jonas Shaffer
The Baltimore Sun
BALTIMORE — The Ravens have reportedly agreed in principle to trade longtime starting quarterback Joe Flacco to the Denver Broncos, according to ESPN.
Terms of the deal have not been announced, but ESPN reported the trade would be for a mid-round draft pick. Transactions cannot be officially completed until March 13. The trade would be the first significant move of Eric DeCosta’s tenure as Ravens general manager.
Flacco, 34, started 163 regular-season games for the Ravens, passing for 38,245 yards, 212 touchdowns and 136 interceptions as he oversaw the franchise’s winningest era. The Ravens won at least eight games in every season in which he started all 16 games and appeared in the playoffs seven times, winning Super Bowl XLVIII at the end of the 2012 season.
But Flacco was hurt midway through last season and ultimately lost his job to rookie Lamar Jackson, who helped lead the team to its first playoff appearance since 2014 and first AFC North title since 2012. After the season, the Ravens announced that Jackson would be their quarterback of the future and that they intended to release or trade Flacco, who’s owed $18.5 million next year on a contract that runs through 2021.
The Ravens would create $10.5 million in cap space and incur $16 million in dead money by trading Flacco. If it’s designated as a post-June 1 trade, the Ravens would incur just $8 million in dead money and save $18.5 million for next season.
With a trade to Denver, Flacco would return to the site of his most memorable performance and instantly assume control of the Broncos’ starting job. In three games at Denver, Flacco completed 54.7 percent of his passes, averaged 270 yards per game, and had seven touchdowns and two interceptions.
His one win came in January 2013, when he threw a game-tying 70-yard touchdown pass to Jacoby Jones with under a minute left in regulation of a divisional-round playoff game. The Ravens later won in double overtime, 38-35, and would claim their second Super Bowl title less than a month later.
