OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Knowing a $28.55 million salary cap figure for the 2016 season could cripple their offseason, the Ravens and veteran quarterback Joe Flacco have agreed to a three-year contract extension through 2021.
The deal reportedly includes $66.4 million in new money and an NFL record $40 million signing bonus. That amount coupled with the $58.6 million he was already owed over the next three seasons will give the 31-year-old a total of $125 million over the next six years.
Flacco will now carry a $22.55 million cap figure for 2016, giving the Ravens an additional $6 million with which to maneuver this offseason.
“We did not do a deal to gain cap room,” general manager Ozzie Newsome said. “We did a deal so Joe Flacco could be on this football team for the next six years. That was probably the most important thing that [we] were working toward.
“The cap will take care of itself. But, is it going to be helpful? Yes.”
The Ravens entered Wednesday projected to be less than $3 million under the salary cap without even addressing their restricted free agents and exclusive-rights players, making it clear that they needed to adjust Flacco’s cap figure after the worst season of the John Harbaugh era. They will now have more flexibility to try to re-sign offensive lineman Kelechi Osemele and make other improvements to a team that finished 5-11 in 2015.
Despite plenty of posturing from both sides about whether Flacco’s original six-year, $120.6 million contract needed to be addressed, talks began between the Ravens and agent Joe Linta at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis last week. Unlike the tense negotiations after Super Bowl XLVII three years ago, discussions were more cooperative this time around as optimism grew about an extension.
“My biggest priority is winning and going out there and being the best football player I can be over the rest of my career,” Flacco said. “I want a little help, and I want to go out there and I just win another Super Bowl. I remember how good that feels, and I can think back to just how jealous I was of other guys this year and the year before that who were playing in that game.”
The Ravens paid Flacco $62 million from 2013-2015 with just $36.15 million of that counting against the cap over that time. The extension clearly helps, but that charge doesn’t just disappear as the goal all along was to try to flatten out his annual cap numbers. The days of Flacco carrying an affordable cap figure between $14 million and $15 million like he did in 2014 and 2015 are long over, however.
Flacco, who continues to rehab his surgically-repaired left knee, will be 36 when his new contract is scheduled to expire. The organization is optimistic that Flacco will be ready for the start of training camp.
“I don’t have anything to compare it to, but I feel like it’s going really well,” Flacco said. “I’m coming in here every day and doing what they tell me to do, and I think that’s really all I can do at this point. I don’t have any real outlook on what the future’s going to bring, but I know that I’m attacking it 100 percent every day and doing the best I can.”
