New Ravens wide receiver Steve Smith has long thought about playing for the Ravens, and Joe Flacco’s a big part of that.
Smith said that Flacco’s arm strength and ability to throw the deep ball were part of the reason he signed with the Ravens.
“I’ve been an admirer of him, even just watching him in college at Delaware and then coming into the draft,” Smith said, via Clifton Brown of CSNBaltimore.com. “You know, as a wide receiver you always kind of look at the quarterbacks in the draft every year to see which guys (have potential) and what they say about whom. How I evaluate a quarterback – if he’s on the other hash and you run a comeback, where’s your ball placement? Is the ball hitting the guy at the ankles, or is he hitting him in the chest?
“He throws a lot of good, easy balls that you can snag (with) one hand. It makes it look good so I like those.”
While Smith and the Ravens are still in the honeymoon phase of their relationship, it’s also not hard to extrapolate Smith’s comments to other quarterbacks.
Other than two ridiculous seasons (2001 and 2010) in which he was working with Chris Weinke, Jimmy Clausen, Matt Moore and Brian St. Pierre, Smith has caught most of his passes from either Jake Delhomme or Cam Newton.
Delhomme tended to lead Smith high if anything (allowing a lot of those good-looking one-handed catches), and those two were extremely productive through the years.
So while he didn’t mention Newton by name, it’s almost as if Smith and his previous quarterback weren’t exactly BFFs.