In the summer of 2007, Ravens scout Mark Azevedo, who was assigned Delaware during spring ball, recommended that Douglas see a tall, lanky kid who played quarterback at Delaware.
“Mark said, ‘Delaware has a kid with an arm. Put them on your schedule,’” Douglas said. “I had to look up his name because it rang a bell from the previous year when Delaware beat my Spiders.”
Even with McNair coming off a big 2006 season, anyone with football intelligence knew that the Ravens would probably be in the market for a quarterback in 2008 just based on his age and the fact that no one on Newsome’s staff – or Billick’s coaches for that matter – believed that incumbents Kyle Boller or Troy Smith were the answer. So, Douglas believed that seeing quarterbacks was a major priority that summer and fall in the hopes of finding the right player the following spring.
It was a full time job – this searching-for-a-Super Bowl-MVP-quarterback work.
During the first week of the college football schedule when he traveled from State College, Pennsylvania to see Penn State quarterback Anthony Morelli and over to Villanova in Philadelphia for a half a day, he wound up in Newark at the University of Delaware to see Flacco.
Normally, scouts watch tape in advance before seeing a player in person. With Flacco, Douglas hadn’t watched any tape. It was the first week of September 2007, right after Delaware beat William & Mary 49-31 in a game where Flacco went 19-of-23 for 202 with one TD and his running back Omar Cuff ran for six touchdowns. Flacco was a Division I-AA quarterback. Quite frankly, most of them don’t warrant a lot of scouting as NFL prospects. Douglas just wanted to see him throw for the first time in person and figured he’d watch the tape after practice.
“The first thing you notice is that he’s a big guy,” Douglas said. “He looked thin from far away, but then you stood next to him and thought, ‘He’s a sturdy guy, maybe 235 pounds.’”
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Delaware coach K.C. Keeler, who Douglas knew from his Richmond battles, always looked to get his kids some NFL attention and make them draft worthy. Or at least get them a look as an undrafted free agent. Over the years, Delaware has put a handful of players into the NFL, most notably a Super Bowl quarterback in Rich Gannon, who graduated in 1987 and spent 17 years in the league.
Keeler, knowing why a Ravens scout was attending practice, took one look at Big Joe D and said, “You’re going to like this practice. I treat every practice like a quarterback workout.”
Douglas stood on the sideline as Flacco threw 45 balls in 15 different routes and was immediately impressed. “You could see that this guy had a big-time arm and also had nice touch. The physical things jumped out immediately.”
Douglas liked Flacco, so eight weeks later he was excited about the good fortune at having this rare “day/night quarterback doubleheader” at a drivable distance on a Saturday in the fall between Newark and College Park. And, as a bonus, he’d get to see both of his key quarterbacks and have a chance to evaluate them within hours of each other.
