CLEVELAND, Ohio — Indianapolis Colts coach Shane Steichen met with reporters Wednesday, and I hope Browns fans were sitting when they heard him speak. If you haven’t heard the news yet, find a comfortable chair, then prepare your football heart. Because the Colts announced an unthinkable decision on Wednesday:
Steichen benches quarterback Joe Flacco after four starts (six appearances) this season.
Eh?! What?! Is Steichen crazy?! Flacco saved the Browns’ 2023 season. He had five straight 300-yard passing games through the end of last season. He beat the Steelers in his first appearance with the Colts, threw eight touchdown passes in his first three games this season, and that’s all bitter Browns fans remember.
You see, around Cleveland, Flacco symbolizes the end-of-season joy that the 2-7 Browns lack. He’s the anti-Deshaun Watson, the old Baker Mayfield, the latest face of angst for a city still searching for a franchise quarterback. When the Browns let Flacco sign elsewhere last offseason, fans couldn’t let go.
Give the Dawg Pound a taste of success, he will cherish you forever. Leave town with a bad replacement, it might overlook your flaws in the process.
Need a refreshment? Flacco threw 10 interceptions in six starts with Cleveland last season, including two pick sixes in January’s playoff loss to the Texans. He threw five more interceptions under Steichen and committed six turnovers during the Colts’ recent two-game losing streak.
So, to answer your question: how was Steichen able to bench Flacco?! The Colts made this decision because Flacco plays less like Cleveland’s savior in 2023 and more like a 40-year-old quarterback with a big arm and too much confidence.
Since last season, when Flacco led Cleveland’s free-spirited football kickoff parade, he has completed 64.3 percent of his passes for 3,090 yards, 23 touchdowns and 15 interceptions in his last 11 games. He ranks 31st among 57 qualified quarterbacks in completion percentage over expectation, 33rd in completion rate and 37th in expected points added (EPA) per play during the same period.
His record as a starter is 5-5, 6-5 if you count his September win over Pittsburgh in relief of injured Colts starter Anthony Richardson (Browns fans would count it twice). And nothing on that resume represents a good quarterback, unless you compare him to the worst in the league (which, in terms of EPA per play, success rate, and total QBR, is Watson).
Think about it: When Browns fans forgo pom-poms after Flacco’s touchdown passes, do they really want a 40-year-old leading their franchise? When they look sideways at the Cleveland front office after every Mayfield win, do they really miss debating every week whether the Browns had a franchise quarterback? Or does the Dawg Pound just wish the Browns were better than the basement, then project that sentiment onto two men who took them higher?
I know my answer and I advise you to find a comfortable chair before you hear it. Are you seated?
Because Steichen made an obvious choice Wednesday to bench an aging, turnover-prone quarterback. The Browns are more than a Flacco or Mayfield away from the Super Bowl race (the reason they traded for Watson in the first place). And the city’s continued love for both quarterbacks highlights the franchise’s current low point more than your preferred high of either player’s tenure.
In other words, the Flacco Fever fallout tells us more about Watson than it does about Flacco, even if Flacco’s heights are all those bitter fans remember.
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