On The Ravens Case: Falcons and Ravens linked together in 2008

Entering the 2008 NFL season, the Baltimore Ravens and Atlanta Falcons found themselves in similar situations.

The Falcons were coming off a 4-12 season and their face of the franchise Michael Vick had just been sentenced to 23 months in jail. They were trying to get through an NFL season with the quarterback play of Joey Harrington,and Byron Leftwich, and 13 games into the season, head coach Bobby Petrino had decided he had enough. Petrino resigned and went back to college to become the head coach of the University of Arkansas.

The story was sort of the same for the Baltimore Ravens, who would finish the season 5-11, including a loss to the Miami Dolphins, who were then coached by Ravens offensive coordinator Cam Cameron, and was the Dolphins only win that season. The Ravens also had to count on Steve McNair, Kyle Boller, and Troy Smith, to handle the quarterback position  that season for the football team. On December 31,2007, Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti had decided he had seen enough and fired Brian Billick as the head coach after 9 seasons.

Both teams soon filled their head coaching vacancies, the Baltimore Ravens hired John Harbaugh to become the team's head coach while the Atlanta Falcons picked a former Ravens coach, and brother-in-law of Brian Billick, Mike Smith.

In  two and a half seasons, both Harbaugh and Smith have identical regular season records 26-14.  Harbaugh has the edge in the post-season, going 3-2, while Smith is 0-1 in his only chance at post-season play.

2008 would also see both teams draft what they expected to be their "franchise quarterbacks". The Falcons would use the third pick in the first-round that year to select Matt Ryan out of Boston College, while the Ravens would use the 18th pick in the first round, making Joe Flacco out of Delaware the future quarterback of their organization.

Flacco and  Ryan's stats are so similar it is kind of eerie.

Flacco career: 732 completions ,8,501 yds,47 touchdowns, 30 interceptions

Ryan career: 708 completion,8,305 yds,51 touchdowns,30 interceptions

So far this season:

Flacco : 12 touchdowns, 6 interceptions,1917 yds,88.9 qb rating

Ryan : 13 touchdowns, 5 interceptions,1,949 yds,90.2 qb rating

Flacco has been to the playoffs two times, while Ryan has only been once.

The end of the 2007 season left both teams with a lot of questions, but the moves that were made by both teams have proven to be profitable for both organizations