Franchise Quarterback

Think the Ravens will be working a little this week on containing RG3? The Ravens play the Washington Redskins on Sunday at FedEx Field. And if they watched the Redskins' 17-16 win over the New York Giants on “Monday Night Football,” they know that Robert Griffin III, already one of the game's most explosive players, is only getting better and better as the season grinds on. Sure, Washington's franchise quarterback had plenty of help as the...

The date was April 26, 2003, and it was supposed to be a milestone in Ravens history. On that day, the Ravens drafted a franchise quarterback named Kyle Boller in the first round, the 19th pick overall. Nearly four months later, the Ravens had named Boller their starting quarterback. That was the beginning of the end of a successful run by the Ravens. If you want to trace the team's recent demise, it started on the day it announced Boller as the starter, which meant the franchise was mortgaging the present for the future.

An unpredictable draft without a clear-cut No. 1 choice will start with debate, not consensus. It will start with the Oakland Raiders weighing the promise of JaMarcus Russell against the production of Brady Quinn. Unless the Raiders obtain a veteran quarterback between now and noon tomorrow, they almost certainly will choose between Russell and Quinn, the 1A and 1B of quarterbacks, with the first pick in the 2007 NFL draft. One has a tremendously strong arm and surprising accuracy. The other demonstrated impressive consistency and leadership over four years, along with the ability to avoid interceptions.

The Ravens routinely work out free agents even if there is no definitive interest or positional need, but it certainly isn't a regular occurrence for a player once considered their franchise quarterback to return to the team's facility and audition for a job. That will happen Thursday as Kyle Boller, a former first-round pick who was a lightning rod for fan discontent during his five-seasons as a Ravens' quarterback, will be one of three veteran...

Love him or loathe him, Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow was the biggest story on a pretty ugly Sunday of NFL football as he engineered a 15-point comeback in the closing minutes to overtake the Dolphins, 18-15. Tebow had completed just four of his 14 pass attempts for 40 yards as Denver trailed, 15-0, with just over five minutes remaining in the game. With every Tebow pass that bounced off the Miami grass, hundreds of Tweets were chirped out into the blogosphere about how he was pretty much the worst quarterback in NFL history.

One of the few criticisms the Ravens have encountered after their 37-7 thumping of the St. Louis Rams on Sunday was the decision to have quarterback Joe Flacco run the offense in the last 3 minutes, 10 seconds of the game. Keeping Flacco in a game that had already been decided might put the franchise quarterback at risk to a season-ending injury, but coach John Harbaugh said during his weekly briefing Monday that allowing Flacco to play with reserves like offensive linemen Bryan Mattison and Jah Reid, wide receivers LaQuan Williams and Tandon Doss and running back Anthony Allen could provide benefits in the long run. “We did replace as many guys as we could,” Harbaugh began.

While Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco has won some people with his play the past two weeks, Joe Namath's mind had long been made up. He didn't need to see Flacco out-shine Indianapolis Colts phenom Andrew Luck and outplay Denver Broncos future Hall of Famer Peyton Manning to conclude that Flacco is one of the league's better quarterbacks. In a phone interview with The Baltimore Sun this week, Namath said that he has a been of fan of Flacco's ever since he first saw him play with the Ravens and he doesn't believe “you can give Flacco too much credit.” “A lot of that respect comes from knowing how tough the position can be at times, what kind of valleys we can get into mentally, emotionally.

The franchise quarterback is under siege, the run defense is wretched, and now, after 39 games, the expansion magic of the Carolina Panthers has seemingly vanished.Almost overnight, last season's shocking success story -- Carolina advanced to the NFC championship game in its second year -- has turned into a bad soap opera.The defensive star, linebacker Kevin Greene, quit the team when it refused to renegotiate his contract, and ultimately signed with the Panthers' biggest rivals, the San Francisco 49ers.

ART MODELL HAS only two goals to fulfill in his last NFL draft as majority owner of the Ravens. He wants to leave the franchise in great shape for future owner Steve Bisciotti, who takes over at the end of the 2003 season, and he would like to draft a franchise quarterback. A quarterback who has charisma. One with leadership abilities. One who can throw the quick out to the far side of the field as well as the intermediate passes over the middle. He wants someone with toughness, touch and the potential for greatness.

When the NFL season opened Sept. 6, journeyman quarterback Bill Musgrave was unemployed. Four days later, the Philadelphia Eagles brought him in to serve as quality control coach, a menial staff job.Sunday, he called the offensive plays in the Eagles' 13-10 loss to the San Diego Chargers.That's how brutal this season has become for the 1-6 Eagles. Seven weeks into a nightmare, a career backup cut by the Indianapolis Colts last August is suddenly calling the shots on offense."Bill Musgrave called the plays.