Eh, I'm probably overvaluing Boldin a bit. However, @kd24, I watched more than just 2 Ravens games all season. I watched most of them actually, and I never saw Boldin playing badly (dropping passes, running incorrect routes, Randy Moss-ing, etc). Sure he had some games where he was practically invisible, but those were always games where he wasn't being thrown to in the first place because either the entire offense was sputtering, Ray Rice was having a field day, or Flacco was just throwing to Torrey. As I watched over the course of the season, I noticed that Flacco tended to pick a "favorite" receiver from week to week, so you would see Boldin or Smith or Pitta put up like 140 yards in one game and then 23 the next. It would fluctuate between receivers, so if you were to analyze each pass-catcher on a weekly basis, you'd see numbers making significant jumps and dives.
As for using completion percentage to judge, I don't use a stat like that to judge a person based on one season. However, when a QB's completion rate is CONSISTENTLY low year after year, that tells me something. When you couple it with an equally sub-par YPA, it tells you more. Flacco's comp% was 60+ in his first 3 years, sure. 60.0%, 63.1%, and 62.6%. His career comp% is also barely above 60% at an impressive 60.5. This isn't exactly a huge step up from sub-60, and his % has actually gotten WORSE each year since his second. kd24's comparison with Roethlisberger, whose career average is the same as Flacco's absolute best single season average and whose YPA is almost a full yard above Flacco for his career, is just an attempt to needle me.
I think this argument is beaten to death. We're both being stubborn anyway so I guess we'll just disagree on our views of Boldin. I still think the Ravens will sorely miss him if he goes, but who knows what will happen until the season starts. We'll see!
