Who would’ve thought that after losing to the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 1, Joe Flacco would’ve not only defected from the Cleveland Browns about a month later, but started meaningful games for the Bengals thereafter.
Congratulations if that was on your preseason bingo card. Just the fact that Cincinnati swung a trade for Flacco in the first place was shocking enough. Never mind him playing so well.
While Who Dey Nation awaits Joe Burrow’s impending return, Flacco is more than holding the fort down for No. 9. Prior to his arrival in the Queen City, though, the 40-year-old vet felt his career was on its last legs. He reflected on that in speaking recently with the media.
Getting benched in Cleveland for an undersized rookie in Dillon Gabriel couldn’t have been easy for Joe Flacco. Ever since two-time NFL MVP Lamar Jackson took his job in Baltimore several years ago, Flacco has gone the journeyman’s route through a medley of different teams.
Since Flacco’s 11-season run with the Ravens, he’s played for six other NFL franchises, including multiple stints in Cleveland and New York for the Jets. Leading into the 2023 season, he wasn’t even on an NFL roster. Flacco came off the couch to lead the Browns to the playoffs that year.
So anyone can understand what an emotional roller coaster Flacco has ridden for years now. He got very honest about that in his latest presser, via Mike Petraglia of CLSNCincy.com:
“I think you’re always getting bombarded with these negative thoughts. […] How do you kind of get out of that mode and get into the positive? Never playing football again is one of those thoughts. It definitely came across my mind several different times in my career, whether it was like, fear of, ‘Man, am I ever gonna play again? Or myself saying, ‘What the hell am I doing? Am I even having fun?’ Those thoughts have all come into my mind, and I’ve dealt with them all at some point…So I think I know enough now to just kind of go play and when those things do come in your head, don’t let them affect you in a negative way. […] When you’re not playing, it’s harder to do, yes, but at the same time, it’s like you’re still part of a team, and you still have a task, and you find comfort in whatever that task is.”
Flacco also indicated that he’s trying not to put a cap on how long he’s going to keep playing, but acknowledged that his stint in Cincinnati gave him a new sense of hope. That is, he can still get it done at a high level in the NFL, even at his advanced (football) age.
In his four games for the Bengals, Flacco may have a 1-3 starting record, but this is a classic case of wins not being a QB stat. He’s absolutely slinging it, to the tune of 11 TDs against only two interceptions and a 102.6 passer rating.
Unfortunately, the Bengals’ dreadful defense has let Flacco and the offense down. They’ve lost 39-38 to the Jets, and 47-42 to the Bears to slide to 3-6.
Both those games were easily within reach thanks in large part to Flacco and a revived rushing attack sparked by his arrival. The rival Steelers are the one adversary Flacco did win against, and they’re on deck for Sunday’s massive Week 11 matchup.
I can’t shake the thought that Flacco will wind up in Pittsburgh next season. He can clearly still play. Aaron Rodgers is liable to retire. Why not complete the cycle and play for every single AFC North team!?
Barring some absurd Joe Burrow trade, — the aforementioned Jets do have five first-round picks in the next two drafts to offer up — Flacco won’t be in a Bengals uniform next season. He’ll want to play.
Flacco’s remarks reflect the resilience and competitive mentality it takes to survive in the NFL for so long. Don’t think he got his due in that regard as a Raven, although he wasn’t so publicly introspective back then, either.
It’s been a privilege to watch Flacco play some of the best ball of his career in Cincinnati. Here’s to keeping it going, and all the best to Joe Cool if he can find a QB1 gig elsewhere once Burrow’s back.
The fact that the Carolina Panthers have won five games this year is a credit to their desire to win – because they have an inordinate number of major flaws for a .500 team.
Defensively, the Panthers have one of the worst pass rushes in the league – and their coverage has fallen off pretty bad at cornerback compared to last season.
Offensively, there are too many problems to name, but the biggest one seems to be that they only really have one and a half reliable weapons.
One of those is breakout superstar running back Rico Dowdle, but as we saw in Sunday’s loss to New Orleans there’s only so much even he can do when a defense is determined to stop him and make Bryce Young beat them.
The half is represented by rookie wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan, who is basically Carolina’s entire passing game. Going into Week 10 he has nearly 100 receiving yards more than every other pass-catcher on the team combined.
That’s a big problem – especially because McMillan has been far less impactful in the second half of games compared to the first. Here’s Mike Kaye from the Charlotte Observer breaking down those painful splits for McMillan.
“In the first half of the first 10 games of the season, McMillan was targeted 46 times for 30 catches for 417 yards and a touchdown. That’s a 65% completion rate with a 13.9 yards-per-catch average… In the second half of games, McMillan was targeted 31 times for 16 catches for 201 yards and a touchdown. That’s 12.6 yards per catch on a 51.6% catch rate.”
You really can’t blame McMillan for this. After all, he is only a rookie.
Canales himself has to be more creative drawing up McMillan’s route tree, which consists mostly of verticals, a couple of in-breakers and not a whole lot else.
More importantly, the Panthers’ other receiving weapons have to come to life and start forcing opponents to pay attention to them. Xavier Legette has had a brutally disappointing second season so far, Jalen Coker has yet to find his rhythm after sitting out the first six weeks on IR and there have been precious few flashes from everybody else involved.
To some extent it’s also on Canales to get those guys going, because his playcalling has been mostly-dismal this season after the opening script.
Bryce Young also has to do his part and throw the ball more accurately and more consistently, but he can only do so much when he’s throwing balls like this and Legette can’t even be bothered to fully extend his arms to try to make the catch.
Put it another way, McMillan’s lack of production in the second half has been a total team failure.
There’s still time to turn things around, but the problems for Canales are mounting – and right now he doesn’t look equipped to handle them.
We could be in for a brutal finish to the 2025 season given the strength of schedule and the fact that opponents will take what worked for the Saints on Sunday and copy it. Expect defenses to sell out to stop Rico Dowdle and force this very dysfunctional Panthers passing game to beat them.
Unless Canales seriously steps up his game and starts finding solutions on offense, there’s a real chance these Panthers have recorded their final win of the season already.