Quarterbacks

Joe Flacco is an elite quarterback now. Forget about Super Bowl rings, conference or division championships, win-loss record and ability. The Ravens made him elite Friday night when the two sides agreed to terms on a six-year, $120.6 million contract that made him the highest paid player in NFL history. Flacco now makes more money than the New Orleans Saints' Drew Brees and the Denver Broncos' Peyton Manning. An above average Joe has become "Elite Joe. " The question now is what happens to the Ravens, and where do they go from here as far as signing and re-signing free agents?

COLLEGE PARK - They left Washington as friendly rivals, respecting each other's talents and having formed a bond from summer camps and scouting combines. They reunited as teammates briefly, first at the University of New Mexico and later at a junior college In Iowa. They are now back together, "like brothers" they say, hoping to help revive a Maryland football team that has won just six games in Randy Edsall's first two seasons. Each could play a significant role under offensive coordinator Mike Locksley, the coach and confidante who has figured in their lives for years.

In a little more than two months, Joe Flacco went from a much-maligned quarterback to Super Bowl Most Valuable Player to the highest-paid player in the history of the NFL. The Ravens agreed to terms with Flacco on a six-year deal worth $120.6 million Friday night, according to team and league sources. There are still some issues to be worked out, but the 28-year-old quarterback is expected to finalize the deal Monday at the Under Armour Performance Center in Owings Mills. “We have the parameters of a deal completed with Joe,” Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome said in a statement released by the team.

With C.J. Brown back in a limited role after missing last season because of a torn anterior cruciate ligament, and Perry Hills and Caleb Rowe continuing to rehab their own knee injuries, Maryland coach Randy Edsall said Monday that his two healthy quarterbacks will be off-limits to contact when spring practice starts Saturday. Edsall might not be able to see how junior transfer Ricardo Young can take a hit, but he will surely make some determinations as to whether the former Gatorade Player of the Year at H.D Woodson High in Washington can challenge Brown for the starting job going into the 2013 season.

INDIANAPOLIS - The Ravens' quest for a franchise quarterback finally ended when Joe Flacco capped a stellar postseason by engineering a Super Bowl victory. Now, a championship and Flacco's unresolved contract as a pending unrestricted free agent have created a complex reality. Flacco is poised to either be paid as much as a $20.46 million franchise tender next season or be retained through a potential blockbuster deal that could rival New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees' $100 million contract.

Quarterback Dennis Dixon , who spent this past season on the Ravens' practice squad, has signed a two-year deal with the Philadelphia Eagles, the team and his agent announced this afternoon. The much-anticipated move reunites Dixon with Eagles coach Chip Kelly , who Dixon played under at the University of Oregon. Dixon, 28, will join a quarterback competition that also includes Michael Vick and  Nick Foles . Vick agreed to a restructured three-year deal with the Eagles earlier this week, but he he has not been guaranteed the starting job. The Ravens initially tried out Dixon last spring, but opted to sign Curtis Painter over both Dixon and Kyle Boller . However, Painter was released in the Ravens' final roster cutdown before the start of the season, and the Ravens ultimately signed Dixon to their practice squad.

Gay characters coming out in prime time is nothing new. In fact, “Coming-out narratives are cliches,” according to Ron Becker, author of “Gay TV and Straight America” (Rutgers University Press, 2006). “They were big in the 1970s and '80s, but even by the 1990s, it was almost a cliché on television,” the Miami University professor says. But a quarterback on a pro football team coming out in the locker room to his teammates, “There's some real potential for drama in that context,” Becker says.

While the Ravens front office contemplates Joe Flacco's agent's insistence that his client should be the highest-paid quarterback in the NFL, Flacco's teammates have a pretty good idea of where Flacco stands with the rest of his peers. “He deserves to get paid,” outside linebacker Terrell Suggs said as a guest on The NFL Network's “NFL Total Access” program Friday night. “Where he scales at, that's between our front office and his agent. But he definitely deserves it. The man has a championship ring and you reward your champion by paying him.” Wide receiver and return specialist Jacoby Jones appeared on the same program and voiced a similar opinion.

Contract negotiations between the Ravens and quarterback Joe Flacco have yet to resume, but the elite asking price the Super Bowl Most Valuable Player hopes to command is becoming clear. Now that Flacco has led the Ravens to a victory over the San Francisco 49ers with three touchdown passes in Super Bowl XLVII in New Orleans, his agent is hoping to make him the highest-paid quarterback in the game. That would entail a multi-year contract exceeding New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees' annual average of $20 million and Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning's annual average of $18 million.

Although he tried his best not to be, Colin Kaepernick is back to being human, and playing that way - complete with the natural mixture of heroics and miscues you'd expect from a quarterback with just nine career starts. While Kaepernick entered Super Bowl XLVII with few blemishes on his postseason passer rating, the latest young NFL superstar exited the Mercedes-Benz Superdome after a mostly forgettable first half and an amazing second half, where he was a 5-yard touchdown pass away from joining Hall of Famers Joe Montana and Steve Young as 49ers quarterbacks to bring a world championship to the franchise.