During his end of the season press conference, Ravens General Manager Ozzie Newsome was asked about the $28.55 million cap charge that quarterback Joe Flacco will carry into the 2016 season.
Newsome said that he hopes that there’s a way to build a strong team without restructuring Flacco’s contract “if we are strategic enough,” but that there could be conversations about restructuring the deal, which runs through 2018, this offseason. During a Thursday morning appearance on WBAL, Flacco sounded like he expected to have some of those conversations because of how much impact that cap number could have on the overall roster.
“I want to win so I want to do everything we can to get something done,” Flacco said. “I don’t know exactly what that is or exactly what’s that going to be because we haven’t talked about it yet. I know that’s a huge number and it’s not really realistic. … I’m open to doing something. I want to be here for a while. I want to play football here. That’s what it’s all about.”
Flacco’s cap number rises even higher — over $31 million — for the 2017 season and will be over $24 million in 2018, so any restructuring is going to have to add some years to the deal to spread out the hit over a longer period.
Flacco also touched on his rehab from a torn ACL. He said he’s “doing very well” and that he doesn’t think “there’s any way” he won’t be ready to play “right away” at whatever cap number he winds up with for the coming year.