Joe Flacco Defends Idea Carson Wentz Going High In Draft

Count Joe Flacco among the believers that Carson Wentz can erase his small school stigma in the NFL.

Many draft experts and enthusiasts are surprised at the rapid ascension of quarterback Wentz from FCS standout to projected top 2 pick. This is a kid with just two years of starting experience at North Dakota State. How in the world can it be justified he’s worthy of such a high choice? Well at least one person was quick to come to the defense of the idea.

Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco knows a thing or two about overcoming the stigma of being a small school quarterback. He did the same thing in 2008 coming out of Delaware. Unlike Wentz he failed to crack the top 10, but ended up going 18th overall to the Ravens. The result was an instant return to playoff contention and an eventual title in 2012, a run in which Flacco threw 17 touchdowns to zero interceptions and won Super Bowl MVP honors.

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During a radio interview, he offered the fact that if he could do it, why can’t Wentz?

"“If you’re a good football player, it doesn’t matter where you played at, and I think that’s especially true as a quarterback,” Flacco said on the Ron Jaworski Show on 97.5 The Fanatic.“When you’re a quarterback, it’s all relative to a certain point,” Flacco said. “You’re not throwing to a 6-foot-4 receiver that runs a 4.3 against all I-AA corners. The windows are the same. It might not be technically as fast as some of the higher-level games. But, at the end of the day, the window is just as small because everyone on the field is notched down a little bit.”"

It’s hard to argue against that logic. After all, even Flacco wasn’t the first small school quarterback to succeed at the NFL level. Ken O’Brien went 24th overall to the New York Jets in 1983 out of tiny University of California, Davis. He went on to become a two-time Pro Bowler and led the team to the playoffs three times. So QBs having success from humble beginnings is not unheard of.

Carson Wentz has the physical talent. The tape doesn’t lie about that. It’s just a matter of whether the team that takes him does their job in building a successful system around him from the protection to the weapons to the coaching as Baltimore did for Flacco.

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