FanHouse Cam Cameron

The plan was for Joe Flacco to spend his rookie season -- the first part of it, anyway -- on the sidelines. The Ravens' 2008 first-round pick came to Baltimore by way of Delaware, a Division I-AA school. And while he had the physical tools -- size, elusiveness, arguably the strongest arm in the league -- there's a huge difference between pummeling Monmouth on Saturdays and trying to slow down the Steelers on Monday night.

But training camp injuries to Kyle Boller and Troy Smith forced Flacco onto the field. In 2003, Brian Billick named then-rookie Boller the starter, and five years later, he was fighting for a roster spot (and Billick was out of a job).

Who moved to the head of the NFL class during the draft? Find out with FanHouse's team-by-team 2009 Draft Grades.

Jonathan Ogden retired last summer, leaving the Ravens with a young but deep group of offensive linemen to protect rookie quarterback Joe Flacco. Not surprisingly, Ogden's replacement, Jared Gaither (a former supplementary draft pick) was inconsistent, but occasionally flashed glimpses of big-play potential.

Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer

When the New York Jets tossed Chad Pennington aside in favor of Brett Favre, the Miami Dolphins were happy to pick up the 32-year-old veteran and put him under center.

They were rewarded with a quarterback that finished second in the league's MVP voting, as the team completed one of the most improbable one-year turnarounds in NFL history, claiming the AFC East title one year after a forgettable 1-15 season.

Franchise tags and salary-cap concerns play a very important role in real-world wheelings and dealings, but what if the biggest-named free agents were matched with the teams that gave them the best chance to make a Super Bowl run? What would that list look like? Glad you asked.

Yes, this is a strictly fictional account, one that requires you to suspend reality for the next few minutes. But, hey, it's the NFL offseason, which means that there won't be any meaningful football for another seven months. What else do you have to do?

The Lions coaching staff is coming together nicely. Gone are Rod Marinelli, Joe Barry and Jim Colletto. In are Jim Schwartz, Gunther Cunningham, and Scott Linehan.

The Rams fired Linehan as their head coach last September after the team stumbled to an 0-4 start. By all accounts he was dreadful, amassing a 11-25 record in just over two seasons. Schwartz hiring him to coordinate the Lions' offense might seem like more of same in Detroit. But here's the thing: just because a guy is a complete and utter failure as a head coach doesn't mean he's not a good coordinator with a firm grasp on Xs and Os.

As has been the case since, well, the Ravens relocated from Cleveland back in '96, this team is only as good as its defense. That was never more evident than during the 2000 Super Bowl run. Eight years later, Baltimore is 60 minutes away from the championship game thanks largely to its defense. Shocking, I know.

Unlike the '00 team, this year's version has some semblance of an offense. Trent Dilfer was game-manager-tastic, and one of Brian Billick's biggest mistakes as head coach was releasing Dilfer to bring in Elvis Grbac. But new offensive coordinator Cam Cameron has done a fabulous job of protecting Joe Flacco (did you know he's the first rookie to ever win TWO playoff games!?) with a punishing running game and play-action passes.

Flacco isn't easily rattled, and that quality has served him well. But he's also benefited from the knowledge that the Ravens can score 14 points a game and win. The defense held opponents to fewer than two touchdowns 10 times during the regular season, and have allowed just nine and 10 points in two playoff games. Not too shabby.

Sometimes you can't make a coordinator into a head coach in the NFL. Malcolm Cameron (yes, that's Cam Cameron's real name, though I guess it's reassuring to know his name isn't Cameron Cameron) would be a perfect illustration. He's a great offensive coordinator, yet his one head coaching stint in the NFL resulted in disaster, as he went 1-15 with the Dolphins last season.

I remembered thinking it was an awful hire for the Dolphins, simply because -- even though he's a great offensive mind -- he was such a terrible head coach at Indiana, my alma mater. I endured watching 38-35 losses on a weekly basis during college, thanks to Cam's lack of defensive prowess. He couldn't even get to a bowl game with Antwaan Randle-El and his high-octane offense. Seriously, if you can't succeed in the Big Ten, how are you cutting it in the AFC East?

Today, Cameron won his second game of the season in Miami, as an opposing offensive coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens. Coincidentally, his lone victory in Miami last season came against the Ravens.

Just as was the case last year, I'm sure Dolphins fans are happy to see him exit South Florida.

Stay on top of all the postseason action with FanHouse's NFL playoff coverage.

When the Ravens faced the Dolphins in Week 7, both teams were 2-3 and coming off forgettable 2007 seasons. I'm pretty sure nobody had Baltimore finishing the year 9-2 or Miami winning the division. Yet 11 weeks later, here we are.

The Ravens won 27-13 back in October in what has now become a familiar formula: run, run, play-action; matriculate the ball down the field; control the clock; and let the defense take care of the rest.

Pretty much everybody likes the Ravens tomorrow, partly because of their suffocating defense, and also because the Dolphins haven't beaten anybody outside the AFC East. Of their 10 non-divisional games, Miami was an impressive 7-3, but the teams they beat combined for a 36-76 record. So, yeah, there are some skeptics. The Ravens, on the other hand, smoked the Eagles, Redskins and Cowboys, and played the Steelers well enough to win. Twice.

Now the question becomes: can Miami concoct variations of the Wildcat that will work against Baltimore's defense? And when running a conventional offense, will Chad Pennington be able to play up to his MVP candidate form against the Ray Lewis All-Stars?

As we get ready for the Wild Card Weekend matchup of the Dolphins and Ravens, Brian Miller from PhinPhanatic and Tony Lombardi from ProFootball24x7 were nice enough to offer some insights on their teams for this week's Behind Enemy Lines feature.

Sportz Assassin: How do both of you feel about how your teams are playing heading into the playoffs?

Brian Miller (PhinPhanatic): I like the fact that no one is giving us any real credit for getting there. Jim Mora says on air that the best AFC East team is New England and there has been little "props" for winning the division as most of the kudos surrounds simply the turnaround. The Ravens are three-point favorites in this game and the Phins are getting tired of feeling second rate.

Tony Lombardi (ProFootball24x7): The Ravens are really beginning to gel in Cam Cameron's offense and now they are getting contributions from Mark Clayton and Willis McGahee. Joe Flacco has come on strong since the last meeting with the Dolphins and has the third highest road QB rating among NFL quarterbacks. And of course the team's defense is always dependable. The Ravens could be a dangerous post season participant.

We say it every week, but this time it's legit: this is the biggest game of the year. The Cowboys host the Ravens tonight and the postseason is on the line. The Steelers-Titans and Panthers-Giants get-togethers will determine playoff seeding, but whatever happens, all four teams will be playing in January.

There's a very real chance that the loser of tonight's Baltimore-Dallas affair will be on the couch with the rest of us in two weeks.

The Ravens are coming off a tough loss to the Steelers that wasn't without controversy. Still, at 9-5, rookie head coach John Harbaugh has done more with this outfit than anybody expected, and the other rookie, quarterback Joe Flacco, has been everything the too-numerous-to-count "franchise QBs" of the past decade (courtesy of Brian Billick!) weren't. And, of course, there's the defense, which, as always, is dominant.

The Cowboys managed to weather a month of Brad and Brooks, and now that Tony Romo is healthy, they've reassumed the role of NFC playoff contender. There's the ongoing Terrell Owens sideshow, but I'm convinced that that's more a media creation than a divisive locker room issue. That said, it's probably in everybody's best interest if Romo only throws T.O. the ball from now on.