The Cleveland Browns and the Cincinnati Bengals made headlines last week when the Browns traded their former starting quarterback, Joe Flacco, to their divisional rivals. It shocked the NFL landscape. That included Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin, whose team plays the Bengals on Thursday night.
And Tomlin’s words about the trade made headlines themselves. Head coaches don’t make their feelings known on what’s going on with rivals like Tomlin did very often. Most people presumed Tomlin was stunned by the fact that the Browns traded a quarterback inside their own division. But the Inside Coverage crew over at Yahoo! Sports thinks it had more to do with the schedule.
“My initial reaction was he’d rather be preparing for Jake Browning this week,” co-host Andrew Siciliano said Tuesday. “Instead, he’s preparing for Joe Flacco. So, thank you, Andrew Berry. You’re making me prepare for Joe Flacco.”
“I thought the same thing as you, Andrew,” Charles Robinson said. “I was like, they got the Bengals twice on the schedule. So, they went from facing a team with a crippled quarterback situation to what could be at least a competent quarterback situation. And that’s a threat. I think the difference between Browning and Flacco in terms of experience, and then also how the skill set matches up with the skill position players on that Bengals’ offense, at least makes the Bengals a bigger threat than before this.”
Both Siciliano and Robinson make a great point. The Steelers face the Bengals one more time this season after Thursday night. And Bengals QB Jake Browning was not good in relief of injured QB Joe Burrow, throwing for six touchdowns with eight interceptions.
Plus, the Steelers are playing the Bengals Thursday night on a short week. Now, Tomlin and his staff have to prepare to face Joe Flacco with only one game of tape of him with the Bengals.
And as Flacco’s former teammate, Steelers CB Darius Slay, said, Flacco will be throwing to the best options he’s ever had. The Bengals’ wide receiver duo of Tee Higgins and Ja’Marr Chase is one of the very best in the league. The Steelers’ defense will have its hands full on Thursday.
And Mike Tomlin knows just how much trouble Joe Flacco can be. Flacco came off the bench last year with the Indianapolis Colts to replace an injured Anthony Richardson. And he led the Colts to a win over the Steelers.
Robinson thinks that Flacco may be a better fit for what the Bengals want to do offensively as well. Both Higgins and Chase are deep threats; Higgins averages 11.5 depth of target, and Chase averages 9.6. Flacco has been willing to throw the ball deep throughout his career, and that should suit his receivers just fine.
But the Bengals have struggled to protect the quarterback this season. They’ve allowed 16 sacks through six games. And the Steelers’ pass rush has been fierce with 20 sacks. OLB Nick Herbig leads the team with 4.5 despite missing the first game of the season.
No doubt the Steelers will want to get to Joe Flacco early and often. If they’re able to do that, maybe Mike Tomlin will be less upset with the general manager in Cleveland.
