Career Salary Game: Joe Flacco

Joe Flacco will continue his career with the Philadelphia Eagles this year, so how much has he made to this point?

After spending the 2020 season with the New York Jets, Joe Flacco has signed a one year deal with the Philadelphia Eagles. He’ll make $3.5 million guaranteed, with another $500,000 available via incentives.

Flacco’s career is a testament to great timing. He stepped right in as the Baltimore Ravens starter as a rookie in 2008, and he was just fine through four seasons for a team that won a lot of games. He decided to bet on himself heading into the final year of his contract in 2012, and he had another unremarkable regular season. But in the playoffs, it was another story.

As the Ravens made their run to winning Super Bowl XLVII, Flacco averaged 285 yards per game with 11 touchdown passes and zero interceptions in four playoff games (117.2 passer rating).

The Ravens were between a rock and a hard place then. They wound up giving Flacco a then-record six-year, $120.6 million deal. Then, in 2016, they gave him a three-year, $66.4 million extension. Flacco didn’t see the end of the latter deal, as he was traded to the Denver Broncos in 2019. A neck injury that season put his playing future in doubt, but here he still is.

So how much has Flacco made thus far?

According to Spotrac, through last season, Flacco has $167,575,000 in cash earnings during his career (13 seasons). Add in the $3.5 million he’s going to collect in 2021, and that goes to just over $171 million. $147.8 million of that of course came from the Ravens, mostly via that big contract and the ill-advised extension.

Kirk Cousins is easily the epitome of a capitalist quarterback. But Flacco deserves some credit in that regard too. Here’s the “Book of Flacco”. 1. Bet on yourself (logically or otherwise). 2. Outperform the rest of your career in a small sample of work that yields a Super Bowl ring. 3. Get generational money, and extend your career.