On Sunday, the Pittsburgh Steelers pounded the Cleveland Browns into the ground pretty good to the tune of 23-9. And it really wasn’t that close. Now, the Steelers are on to play the Cincinnati Bengals on Thursday night and will face the guy the Browns just traded to them.
Quarterback Joe Flacco was dealt to the Bengals about four days before yesterday’s rough loss to the Green Bay Packers. Flacco wasn’t good enough to help them win, but if you’ve followed the Bengals at all through the Jake Browning Era then you’ve noticed that Flacco was an improvement.
On Monday, Steelers head coach was asked about his thoughts when he first heard about the deal.
“To be honest, it was shocking to me,” Tomlin said Monday. “Andrew Berry must be a lot smarter than me or us because it doesn’t make sense to me to trade a quarterback that you think enough of to make your opening-day starter to a division opponent that’s hurting in that area, but that’s just my personal feelings.”
Today, Bengals head coach Zac Taylor was asked about Tomlin’s comments.
“I was happy,” Taylor told reporters Monday. “That’s my only comment.”
Tomlin says Joe Flacco trade made sense for the Bengals
Tomlin wasn’t the only person that was surprised by the Flacco trade. It wasn’t so much that he was your opening-day starter this year because they had six quarterbacks on the training camp roster at one point. Two of those quarterbacks were rookies and the only real conundrum in Cleveland was who is first sacrificial lamb out there and which rookie goes in first?
Flacco was obviously going to be the first guy thrown out there. And while Flacco can still play, the Browns did not need a 40-year old seat warmer to go out and continually lose games.
The Bengals kinda do.
“It certainly made sense from Cincinnati’s perspective,” Tomlin said. “… He can throw the football, and he’s always been able to throw the football — arm strength, arm accuracy, anticipatory passer, fluid movement through progressions. That’s always been his game.”
Former Browns’ player rooting for Joe Flacco
Steelers‘ safety Juan Thornhill was with the Browns the past two years. He knows both the Browns and Flacco pretty well.
“I’m being honest, I wasn’t surprised about the Flacco move,” Thornhill said after Sunday’s win. “They took him out of there, they benched him, so I felt like it was next man up. They were kind of done with him. I’ve been over there before. I’ve seen that picture before. Once they bench you, you’re not getting back in there, and I felt like they had an opportunity maybe to get something out of Flacco, so they sent him to Cincinnati.
“I’m excited to play Flacco, man. He’s a great guy.”
A few weeks ago, Tomlin actually mentioned Flacco when discussing Carson Wentz coming in for J.J. McCarthy for the Minnesota Vikings in Week 4.
“We were in a similar situation a year ago,” Tomlin said on Sept. 23. “We were playing in Indianapolis, and I commented to the guys to keep [Anthony] Richardson upright. Don’t put [Joe] Flacco in the game, and Flacco ended up in the game. I think that’s oftentimes some of the things that you can run into when you run into a veteran guy, at least from a short-term perspective.”
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