The Facts: Following up on the ongoing story. ... While dining at the Capital Grille in Indianapolis, PFT's Mike Florio spotted Ravens V.P. of football administration Pat Moriarty and Flacco's agent, Joe Linta, walking in an taking a seat at a nearby booth. Which meshes with our report from earlier in the day that the first meeting between the two sides would be occurring on Friday night or Saturday.
Diehards Line:The Ravens and Linta haven’t negotiated since August. Florio went on to note that for Linta, who repeatedly has said Flacco should be the highest-paid quarterback in the league, the ability to deliver could push him onto the “A” list of all NFL agents. Failure to do so will give other agents plenty of ammunition to criticize him when recruiting other clients. The Ravens also have plenty on the line. If a long-term deal can’t be negotiated, the Ravens will have to decide whether to use the non-exclusive level of the franchise tag or the exclusive level. As Florio explained, the $6 million difference in 2013 quickly spirals out of control if Flacco decides to assume the injury risk and play on a year-to-year basis. If the Ravens use the exclusive tag in 2013, Flacco would make more than $80 million in three seasons of being tagged. ... Again, we'll be hearing much more about this in coming days -- whether there are actual developments or not. Steel yourselves.