Ravens are expecting a lot of QB Flacco

To be a third-year pro in 2010 season, the Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco has shown some talent in football through performance in the past two seasons, and the team indeed has much expectation out of him.

According to reports, Ravens offensive coordinator and new quarterbacks coach Jim Zorn had Flacco spend a week at the University of Southern California earlier this month where he trained with a pitching coach. The purpose of the baseball workout is to strengthen the smaller muscles surrounding his throwing shoulder to upgrade his arm strength, accuracy, durability and longevity, all the elements for being a great quarterback.

Besides, the Ravens have also signed three star wide receivers from the free agent market: Anquan Boldin, Derrick Mason and Donte’ Stallworth. Even the new quarterback coach Zorn was a special choice for Flacco as Zorn himself was used to be an NFL quarterback with the Seattle Seahawks. All the efforts made are for one goal: to make Joe a championship quarterback.

“There are terms like ‘elite quarterback’ and ‘franchise quarterback.’ All of those things are where we expect Joe to go. He does even more so than we do. You know how Joe is. He already thinks he’s the best quarterback in the NFL,” said Ravens coach John Harbaugh during the NFL owners meetings at the Ritz-Carlton Grande Lakes. “But he knows that he’s always going to have a lot of work to do. I know physically he needs to get stronger. Mentally, he needs to get sharper. Technique-wise, he needs to get more pronounced. But the expectation is to be the winningest quarterback in the NFL.”

What Flacco needs to do is simply to prove he deserves the high expectation. Actually, he has proven to be capable of winning. The former first-round draft pick has helped the Ravens appear in playoff for two consecutive seasons since he put on the Ravens jersey in 2008. Despite several painful injuries like sprained ankle and badly bruised thigh and hip, he still managed to complete 63.1 percent of his throws for a career-high 3,613 yards and 21 touchdowns.