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          NFL Nation

          Joe Flacco ranks 36th among NFL player sales

          • Jamison Hensley, ESPN Staff WriterApr 20, 2015, 02:40 PM ET
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              Jamison Hensley is a reporter covering the Baltimore Ravens for ESPN. Jamison joined ESPN in 2011, covering the AFC North before focusing exclusively on the Ravens beginning in 2013. Jamison won the National Sports Media Association Maryland Sportswriter of the Year award in 2018, and he authored a book titled: Flying High: Stories of the Baltimore Ravens. He was the Ravens beat writer for the Baltimore Sun from 2000-2011.
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          The Baltimore Ravens' Joe Flacco is not an elite quarterback when it comes to merchandising.

          Flacco finished No. 36 on the NFL Players' top 50 player sales list, which is based on overall retail sales from March 1, 2014 through Feb. 28, 2015. This is not a flattering ranking when you consider he followed 14 other quarterbacks (Russell Wilson, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Colin Kaepernick, Aaron Rodgers, Johnny Manziel, Drew Brees, Andrew Luck, Tony Romo Eli Manning, Cam Newton, Robert Griffin III, Nick Foles and Ryan Tannehill).

          It's a given that Flacco would not top Manning, Brady or Rodgers. It's also understandable that Wilson is No. 1 after leading the Seahawks to back-to-back Super Bowls. But it's surprising to see Flacco behind RG3, Foles and Tannehill, all of whom have failed to establish themselves. One explanation is this time frame accounted for the months following Flacco's worst season, when he threw 22 interceptions.

          Flacco dropped one spot from last season, when he was No. 35. If rivalries extend to jersey sales, the one bright spot for Flacco is beating out Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who was No. 38.

          Last year, the Ravens had two players (Flacco and running back Ray Rice) on the NFL Players' top 50 list. Flacco is the only Ravens player on this year's rankings.

          The list, which is released quarterly by NFL Players Inc., the marketing and licensing arm of the NFL Players Association, is based on total overall sales of all licensed products (including jerseys and T-shirts, player murals, figurines, framed photos and bobbleheads), from online and traditional retail outlets as reported by more than 70 NFLPI licensees.