The Steelers are now back at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, facing down a long regular season that looks a lot more promising given how things have gone leading up to it. Finishing just above .500 last year, they anticipate being able to compete with any team in the league this season with second-year QB Kenny Pickett leading the way.
They’ve done a great deal to address what they identified as their shortcomings during the offseason, which included addressing the offensive and defensive lines as well as the secondary and the inside linebacker room, which is nearly entirely different from last year. The results have been positive so far.
Even well into the regular season and beyond, there are going to be plenty of questions that need answered. When will the core rookies get to play, or even start? Is the depth sufficient where they upgraded? Can they stand toe-to-toe with the Bengals and the other top teams in the league? We’ll try to frame the conversation in relevant ways as long as you stick with us throughout the season, as we have for many years.
Question: Would Browns QB Joe Flacco be having as much success in Pittsburgh’s offense?
In case you haven’t noticed, the Cleveland Browns don’t really seem to be missing Deshaun Watson. The $230 million quarterback has missed most of the year due to injury, but they are playing their best football now led by Joe Flacco.
A former Super Bowl MVP who may be best known as the butt of “elite” jokes, Flacco came off the couch and set an NFL record. He became the first player in history to throw for 250-plus yards and two-plus touchdowns in his first five games with a new team. And they’ve gone 4-1 in those games. They will officially finish a season with a better record than the Steelers for the first time in 34 years.
Sure, he’s had some miscues, and is riskier than the Steelers like their quarterbacks to be. But given their circumstances, it has to pose the question. Would Flacco be having the same success in Pittsburgh right now that he is having in Cleveland?
Maybe not the exact same success, given his career-best numbers that seem to be coming out of nowhere. But would he have prevented them from hitting a three-game losing streak, for example? What would Pittsburgh’s record be had Flacco been Kenny Pickett’s backup rather than Mitch Trubisky?
Then again, the Steelers with Pickett lost to the Browns while they started Dorian Thompson-Robinson at quarterback. It’s been a chore to even get two touchdowns on the board per game for most of the season, if we’re being honest.
Of course, they just got a 250-plus-yard, two-touchdown game out of Mason Rudolph last week, their first since Ben Roethlisberger retired. And at least so far it looks as though he will be starting on Sunday with Pickett still ailing.
But would you take Flacco right now over Rudolph? How confident would you be that you would be getting the Cleveland Flacco and not the latter-day Ravens Flacco? The more games he plays, the less it looks like a fluke, but maybe it’s just Cleveland’s offense and weapons. Even without Amari Cooper, as was the case last night.
