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The knee-jerk reaction to the idea of the Cincinnati Bengals adding veteran quarterback Joe Flacco isn’t great.
We know the Bengals aren’t big on adding a veteran passer behind Joe Burrow. And Flacco isn’t the most attractive name, mostly because Bengals fans know all about him from his time with the Baltimore Ravens. So when it was suggested by an expert it was easy to brush off.
But…it isn’t the worst idea in the world, right?
Part of the reason we’re so quick around here to stamp out any chatter about a veteran backup is simply because of the options out there. Sorry but Josh McCown (if he’s really done) or Drew Stanton or Geno Smith just don’t stick out as awesome mentors for a rookie passer.
Flacco is a little different though.
Flacco is an accomplished player compared to the other free agents out there who would slot into a mentor role. Not to totally discredit the others, but we are talking about a Super Bowl winner. We’re talking about a career 61.9 percent passer who threw for more than 200 scores. As a backup…it could be worse.
The situation works too. Flacco’s 35 and recovering from neck surgery. He’s not going to sign until August and it’ll come cheap when he does. Normally, given the schedule hiccups due to the coronavirus pandemic, it’d be easy to wave off a newcomer at quarterback who would be behind the ball and just let Ryan Finley have the backup gig.
But Flacco’s wealth of experience — in the AFC North no less — makes it harder to ignore him.
And look, the talk about Burrow being so mature he doesn’t need a veteran backup is great. Andy Dalton was similarly mature and also faced an unorthodox rookie summer. And we can all agree the wealth of quarterback experience on the coaching staff right now is impressive and should help plenty.
Flacco coming aboard as a free agent late in the process though is just one of those luxury moves it’d be hard to hate. It’s not taking anything away from Burrow to add a veteran guy to the quarterback room. It won’t discredit his maturity or whatever else. And really, it’d fit with the tightrope the Bengals have walked this offseason between rebuilding and winning now — we all saw how much Finley struggled when the starter got pushed aside last year.
So while it’s easy to say “no thanks” on Flacco — it really couldn’t hurt.
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