John Harbaugh issued a scorching hot take this weekend, and he’s not about to douse the flames.
The Baltimore Ravens head coach had plenty of praise for quarterback Joe Flacco last weekend after his team downed the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC wild-card round, calling him the “best quarterback in football.”
That’s a pretty bold claim if you go by the numbers — Flacco finished 16th in the NFL this season with a 91.0 passer rating — but we can’t fault Harbaugh for standing by his quarterback.
During his Tuesday news conference, however, Harbaugh told reporters he was dead serious about Flacco being the NFL’s best.
“No, I said it. That’s what I meant,” Harbaugh said. “It doesn’t take too much to figure out what I said there. (It’s) pretty clear cut. I said it. I meant it. What more is there to say about it, you know? You want me to explain it? You guys make your opinion; I’ll have my opinion. I’m entitled to my opinion, aren’t I?”
You certainly are, Coach.
Flacco’s regular-season numbers are average at best, but his playoff stats indicate Harbaugh might not be completely crazy. Flacco has a 10-4 career postseason record, and he has thrown for 13 touchdowns and zero interceptions in his last five playoff games. He’s also the only quarterback other than Eli Manning to beat the New England Patriots twice in the postseason.
Does that make him the NFL’s best quarterback? No. But Flacco doesn’t mind the extra praise.
“It obviously means a lot for a head coach to stand up in front of the whole world and say those kind of things,” Flacco told reporters Tuesday. “Whether it really means anything, I don’t know. But it definitely means a lot to me.”
Thumbnail photo via Charles LeClaire/USA TODAY Sports Images
