Elite is a word that is used often, but rarely used correctly. Elite is defined as: representing the most choice or select; best.”

The best of the best in the NFL is awarded the Super Bowl MVP award. Twenty-four of the 45 Super Bowl MVPs (53.3%) have been quarterbacks. So if the best player on the best team is a quarterback most of the time, you can conclude that quarterback is the most valuable position in the NFL.

Although the Super Bowl MVP is usually a quarterback, teams have won a Super Bowl when their quarterback hasn’t been their best player (Tampa Bay in 2002, Brad Johnson; Baltimore in 2000, Trent Dilfer; Dallas in 1995, Troy Aikman; San Francisco in 1994, Steve Young; etc.).

Here’s a list of the last ten Super Bowl MVPs:

*Of all 1,696 active players, only nine of them have won a Super Bowl MVP award (.53%).

The reason I bring up the topic of Super Bowl MVPs and quarterbacks is this – despite an improbable, incredible 92-yard drive Joe Flacco engineered Sunday night in Pittsburgh, many people are still skeptical.

The majority of people still think Flacco either isn’t good enough to get to and win a Super Bowl, isn’t clutch or is simply average.

To say he’s not good enough to get to and win a Super Bowl is not a strong argument, because he has never played in one. The only chance he’s had at reaching a Super Bowl was when he was a rookie quarterback and lost in Pittsburgh in the AFC Championship game.

Did that not exceed reasonable expectations?

Also, it’s tough to say how good (or bad) a player is, especially through 3 ½ years of football. Even at the end of one’s career, their accomplishments have been aided by their teammates countless times.

Thankfully, we have the resources to research past Super Bowl champions and great players to figure out what made them successful.

So finally, I’ll answer the question so many NFL fans are talking about: How good is Joe Flacco?

I think it’s safe to say that Flacco has never had elite talent at the skill positions, except for Ray Rice. Rice is an elite back, but he’s not a receiver. Flacco has had good to very good players to throw to (Todd Heap, Derrick Mason, and Anquan Boldin).

Think about the last ten Super Bowl champions. How many great quarterbacks had a similar collection of average talent at wide out? Tom Brady and Drew Brees are the only ones that come to mind.

Let’s look at how much an offensive line has helped its quarterback over the last ten years.

*Five of the last ten Super Bowl champions have had a top-10 average offensive line ranking, according to basic stats indicating run blocking and pass blocking. The average of those ten teams’ offensive line ranking: 23.8.

How has the performance of Flacco’s offensive lines been over his 3 ½ years? It’s decreased since he started playing in 2008, but overall, has been well above average.

*Average ranking over 3 ½ years: 15.25.

Now we know Flacco has had average help at the skill positions and above average help from his offensive line.

But how has Flacco performed compared to other Super Bowl winners? If you really want to see how good (or not) Flacco is, compare his career to the careers of recent Super Bowl winning quarterbacks.

Here is what each of these quarterbacks have accomplished in their post-season careers:

Among active Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks, Flacco has as many playoff wins as Eli Manning and Drew Brees. He has more fourth-quarter comebacks/game-winning drives than Aaron Rodgers in the playoffs (and the same number as Peyton Manning: 1).

Conversely, Flacco has the smallest completion percentage and the least amount of passing yards and touchdowns among the others.

In other words, compared to active quarterbacks who have won a Super Bowl, Joe Flacco doesn’t statistically match up.

But when you look at the regular season winning percentage among that group, Flacco is third (behind Brady and Roethlisberger). When looking at postseason winning percentage, Flacco wins almost ten percent more of his games than Peyton Manning.

You may wonder why I looked at only the last ten Super Bowl winning quarterbacks. I did so because it’s a pertinent sample of the how quarterbacks perform in the current NFL era. Again, if you want to know how good a player is, compare him to players who have already won a Super Bowl.

The bottom line is that Flacco is an average statistical quarterback. But in terms of winning games, he is elite.

My opinion? I’d say he is the 7^th best quarterback in the league.

Here is my top 10 list of NFL quarterbacks: 1) Rodgers, 2) Brady, 3) Brees, 4) E. Manning, 5) Roethlisberger, 6) Philip Rivers, 7) Flacco, 8) Cam Newton, 9) Matt Schaub and 10) Tony Romo.

Now you have the facts.

What’s your opinion?