It might just be, the further Ravens players have gotten from the Joe Flacco era, the larger his legend has loomed in their minds.

Brent Urban, who was drafted in 2014, remembered Flacco as “my first time seeing a real-deal quarterback” with NFL arm strength. Lamar Jackson recalled watching the then-10-year veteran bombing 80-yard passes downfield, though he probably didn’t use a tape measure to confirm.

Said coach John Harbaugh: “He’s iconic, I think, in Baltimore football history.”

Even though this week is a must-win grudge match for the Ravens against the Cleveland Browns in their home opener, plenty of them have felt warm memories when thinking about Flacco — the best quarterback the Ravens ever had before Jackson arrived in 2018. He left behind franchise records, a Lombardi Trophy and a whole bunch of downfield highlights, but one of his best gifts might be how he left.

Flacco gave Baltimore a peaceful quarterback succession.

It’s harder than it sounds. Plenty of franchises have failed to stick the dismount for their Super Bowl-winning passers. Green Bay struggled with Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers. The Patriots let go of Tom Brady prematurely and came to regret it. The Colts had a tearful farewell for Peyton Manning but had to fire their GM and coach first. The Steelers failed to find a true successor for Ben Roethlisberger, keeping them in limbo for the last few years.

If you had to pick, Flacco’s departure is the best of the bunch. Just like his demeanor in the pocket or in the film room, the veteran stayed cool and collected when the Ravens handed his job to Jackson, then a rookie from Louisville who several talent evaluators had said should change positions.

All these years later, Flacco considers his exit from Baltimore to have been “on good terms.”

“I have nothing but love for the people in that facility and the people in that city, for sure,” Flacco said Wednesday. “I was a small-school guy that they took a little bit of a chance on early in the draft. I have so many good memories with those people and that city and in that stadium.”

When you have players, like Rodgers, who never hesitate to throw petty shots at former teams, it speaks volumes that Flacco plays it cool with an organization he won a championship with then let him walk in the 2019 offseason. He could have made it a lot rockier.

Talking to the handful of remaining Ravens who were Flacco’s teammates, most bring up how easygoing he was. As a Super Bowl MVP, he enjoyed vaunted status among teammates — but that doesn’t mean he flaunted it. Marlon Humphrey remembered being stunned when he was a rookie in 2017 and Flacco snagged a seat by him in the team cafeteria.

“I just thought that a quarterback, a Super Bowl MVP, would not just join a rookie at the lunch table, so I thought that was cool,” he said. “I was young coming in [and thought] quarterbacks were probably just arrogant guys. So that’s my first memory of Joe.”

Then again, Flacco’s grip on the organization had been waning since his otherworldly Super Bowl run in 2012. The Ravens’ selection of Jackson at the end of the first round was a warning bell to a player who had been injured, had been turnover-prone and had never quite measured up to the other greats of his era.

Flacco famously has made it clear he doesn’t see himself as a mentor. But he wasn’t cold toward Jackson, either, even though the rookie represented a threat to his job. Jackson said he remembers Flacco’s dry sense of humor the most.

“He used to have me rolling as a rookie,” Jackson said. “I used to be like, ‘Man, this man just says stuff so nonchalantly.’ It is great. He is a great person to be around.”

When the Ravens swapped Jackson in midway through the season, Flacco didn’t agitate or kick back. He accepted it with grace, something few quarterbacks with his accomplishments could have stomached. Though he could have kicked Jackson or the Ravens when the team started down 20-0 in the playoff game against the Chargers that year, he went the opposite way.

A reporter asked if he could have made a difference if he had been subbed in for Jackson at halftime, when Ravens fans were chanting his name.

“No, no, you can’t even go there, man,” Flacco said, shaking off a chance for drama. “I thought Lamar did a great job of just hanging in there and giving us a chance at the end.”

Ravens fans should have only more esteem for the dignity Flacco had then, given how his career has turned out. For a few years, it seemed Baltimore had pretty much squeezed out all the juice he had left. After mostly forgettable stints with the Broncos and Jets, Flacco was out of football to start the 2023 season.

His first tenure in Cleveland later that year, after a rash of injuries demolished the Browns’ depth, changed his outlook. Flacco reeled off a 4-1 record and helped them qualify for the playoffs, unexpectedly winning Comeback Player of the Year. Jackson was psyched to run into him at NFL Honors, where he was picking up his second MVP.

“I was like, ‘Man, I thought we were going to have to see you in the playoffs,’ because he was going crazy,” Jackson said. “He was on a roll. He had those guys in a good position.”

Even though Jackson dramatically eclipsed Flacco just one year after he left Baltimore, it says something that Flacco had the ability to accept it gracefully, especially given how much he had left in the tank. That classy act has allowed him to feel his soft spot for Baltimore — “I can’t imagine a better 11 years,” he said in 2019 — and allowed his former teammates and his fans in the city to keep a soft spot for him.

“He’s not gonna act a certain way if things aren’t going his way, and that’s kind of what you respected about him,” Urban said. “Down to earth, cool, calm, collected — I think that showed in that transition as well. The way he handled it was honorable. I think there’s two ways you can go about it, and he was how he always was.”

This year, the Browns look like a shakier bet for the postseason, especially after starting 0-1 with a pair of interceptions by Flacco, who beat out a host of younger challengers at age 40. But you can never count out Flacco — the Ravens can tell on film.

“There is a reason why he’s still in this league,” said defensive coordinator Zach Orr, Flacco’s old teammate. “His arm talent is still legit. He can still push the ball down the field at a very accurate and dangerous rate, from a defensive standpoint. So we have to do everything we can to make him uncomfortable and get after him.”

On the field, it’s all competition. Off the field, Joe Cool’s integrity still makes him easy to love around Baltimore.