• Matt Wieters is optimistic about Brian Matusz returning to form
• The Orioles’ owner is suing Facebook
• Whether you say it in French or English, Jones needs to be an Oriole for life
• Dale Hunter calls out Tomas Vokoun
• Video: Mathieu Perrault scores a goal off his face
• BSR Podcast: Oscars preview, Jay Gibbons’ new gig, and Don Zimmer teddy bears

The Ravens will begin talks with Joe Flacco’s agent in Indy this Saturday. The big debate has been about whether or not Joe deserves top 5 money. In my opinion, he’s not a Top 5 quarterback (sorry, I love you), so I don’t think he deserves that Top 5 money. However, let’s take a (rather humorous and true) look at the quarterbacks who got paid the most this past season:

1. Peyton Manning - $23 mil (Obviously. Didn’t play a single game. How much of that money can he fit in his neck?)
2. Michael Vick - $20 mil (Missed the playoffs, got injured basically every game)
3. Mark Sanchez - $14.75 mil (Missed the playoffs, sucks at football, his best friend was the turf)
4. Ben Roethlisberger - $14.75 mil (Lost to the Denver Tebows - still funny)
5. Carson Palmer - $14 mil (Missed the playoffs, can’t throw, looks like he goes to Best Buy just to play the video games)

Now let me just mention that I am aware of the way player contracts work - for those who don’t, in a nutshell, the money within a contract is spread out over the length of that particular contract. For example, Aaron Rodgers was the best quarterback in football this past year and got paid about $8.5 million. Drew Brees was/is arguably as good; his paycheck was only $7 million. If and when their contracts are renewed they’ll be on that list. That’s just how it works.

He doesn’t deserve the ELI-te contract that Eli Manning has with, like, an outrageous sum of $106 million or something, but should he get that second-tier contract that Ryan Fitzpatrick got (also laughable) at roughly, 6 years, $60 million? YES, dammit. 

My point? Joe might not be a top 5 quarterback but does he deserve to be paid like these guys? Yup.

Thoughts?