The Cincinnati Bengals are now in a period of time they never thought they would find themselves in: the Joe Flacco era.Amid an unpredictable series of events that have unfolded this season, Bengals fans are now finding themselves in a position where they are forced to put their hopes for the remainder of the season in a man who has long been a mainstay AFC North rival to the team.Flacco, a 40-year-old veteran quarterback from New Jersey, will don orange and black stripes this Sunday as he takes the field for the seventh NFL team of his 17-year career.While the decision to replace Jake Browning at quarterback with Flacco was highly controversial when it was announced earlier this week, Flacco does have a long track record of leading the two other AFC North teams that he has been part of to significant success.In the 211 NFL games he has played as a starter in his career, Flacco has a 116-95 winning record.This includes being part of teams that have made the postseason on eight different occasions, including a win in the 2012 Super Bowl with the Baltimore Ravens, where he was named the game’s MVP.To this day, Flacco continues to be best known in his career for his years that he spent with the Ravens, after he was first drafted out of the University of Delaware by the team in 2008. In his professional debut game that year against the Cincinnati Bengals, Flacco led Baltimore to a 17-10 win.Flacco would then continue to remain the face of the Ravens franchise throughout the late 2000’s and 2010’s, leading the team to have either a winning or tied record in all of the eight Ravens seasons where he played as a starter in every game.However, that was several years ago, and fans have pointed to some reason for concern about whether Flacco has since been able to keep up with the prior highs of his career: In Flacco’s 33 games that he has started in since the 2019 season, he has only maintained a 10-23 record.All of those games have come in Flacco’s post-Ravens career, where he has bounced around between five different teams in a span of seven seasons.Flacco was first traded to the Denver Broncos after the conclusion of the 2018 season, where he went 2-6 in his appearances for the team. He then proceeded to be traded around between the Jets, Eagles, Browns and Colts over the next few years.More recently, his best post-Ravens record came in the 2023 season, when he led the Cleveland Browns to victory in four of the five regular-season games he played in that year. It was the first season that the Browns made the playoffs since 2020, and only the second time since 2002. However, the team would ultimately lose their first-round playoff game to the Houston Texans with Flacco as the team’s starting QB.Now, Flacco has officially made the trek south to Paycor Stadium for pre-game practice this week in Cincinnati, and no matter how fans may feel, Flacco is the new Joe in town that Cincinnati fans are no doubt bound to see a whole lot more of over the next few weeks. And he already has a very big task ahead of him on his first full day on the job: the Bengals start as overwhelming underdogs in betting odds to the Green Bay Packers, as the team tries to avoid its fourth consecutive blowout loss in a row. However, perhaps even more daunting of a task than overcoming the recent string of losses that have befell the Bengals could be overcoming the onset of low fan morale that appears to have reached its single lowest point in the five-year span since Joe Burrow was drafted to the team in 2020. Now, Flacco is leading a team that many fans have already written off as unsalvageable this season without Burrow at the helm, adding a heightened sense of scrutiny to his performance on the field for whether he can revive the team’s sense that it actually even stands a chance to win any of its games this year.There may be at least one reason to hold out hope that the Bengals can survive under a new Joe at QB: After the conclusion of the NFL’s 2024 season, Joe Burrow was awarded the league’s Comeback Player of the Year award. This was due to his progress in overcoming both the limitations of his 2023 injury and a slow start to the 2024 season that ultimately led the Bengals to a 9-8 record that once seemed all-but-impossible after the team got off to an early string of losses.However, just the year before, the award was given to Ohio’s other famous starting NFL quarterback of the same name: Joe Flacco. This was due to Flacco turning the Browns into a serious postseason contender in 2023 after both Cleveland and Flacco himself each went through separate years-long droughts in securing wins at the NFL’s upper-most levels.Can Flacco now do it again this season and turn the Bengals into a comeback contender? With a 2-3 season record that still remains wide open in front of him, only time will tell.
The Cincinnati Bengals are now in a period of time they never thought they would find themselves in: the Joe Flacco era.
Amid an unpredictable series of events that have unfolded this season, Bengals fans are now finding themselves in a position where they are forced to put their hopes for the remainder of the season in a man who has long been a mainstay AFC North rival to the team.
Flacco, a 40-year-old veteran quarterback from New Jersey, will don orange and black stripes this Sunday as he takes the field for the seventh NFL team of his 17-year career.
While the decision to replace Jake Browning at quarterback with Flacco was highly controversial when it was announced earlier this week, Flacco does have a long track record of leading the two other AFC North teams that he has been part of to significant success.
In the 211 NFL games he has played as a starter in his career, Flacco has a 116-95 winning record.
This includes being part of teams that have made the postseason on eight different occasions, including a win in the 2012 Super Bowl with the Baltimore Ravens, where he was named the game’s MVP.
To this day, Flacco continues to be best known in his career for his years that he spent with the Ravens, after he was first drafted out of the University of Delaware by the team in 2008. In his professional debut game that year against the Cincinnati Bengals, Flacco led Baltimore to a 17-10 win.
Flacco would then continue to remain the face of the Ravens franchise throughout the late 2000’s and 2010’s, leading the team to have either a winning or tied record in all of the eight Ravens seasons where he played as a starter in every game.
However, that was several years ago, and fans have pointed to some reason for concern about whether Flacco has since been able to keep up with the prior highs of his career: In Flacco’s 33 games that he has started in since the 2019 season, he has only maintained a 10-23 record.
All of those games have come in Flacco’s post-Ravens career, where he has bounced around between five different teams in a span of seven seasons.
Flacco was first traded to the Denver Broncos after the conclusion of the 2018 season, where he went 2-6 in his appearances for the team. He then proceeded to be traded around between the Jets, Eagles, Browns and Colts over the next few years.
More recently, his best post-Ravens record came in the 2023 season, when he led the Cleveland Browns to victory in four of the five regular-season games he played in that year. It was the first season that the Browns made the playoffs since 2020, and only the second time since 2002. However, the team would ultimately lose their first-round playoff game to the Houston Texans with Flacco as the team’s starting QB.
Now, Flacco has officially made the trek south to Paycor Stadium for pre-game practice this week in Cincinnati, and no matter how fans may feel, Flacco is the new Joe in town that Cincinnati fans are no doubt bound to see a whole lot more of over the next few weeks. And he already has a very big task ahead of him on his first full day on the job: the Bengals start as overwhelming underdogs in betting odds to the Green Bay Packers, as the team tries to avoid its fourth consecutive blowout loss in a row.
However, perhaps even more daunting of a task than overcoming the recent string of losses that have befell the Bengals could be overcoming the onset of low fan morale that appears to have reached its single lowest point in the five-year span since Joe Burrow was drafted to the team in 2020. Now, Flacco is leading a team that many fans have already written off as unsalvageable this season without Burrow at the helm, adding a heightened sense of scrutiny to his performance on the field for whether he can revive the team’s sense that it actually even stands a chance to win any of its games this year.
There may be at least one reason to hold out hope that the Bengals can survive under a new Joe at QB: After the conclusion of the NFL’s 2024 season, Joe Burrow was awarded the league’s Comeback Player of the Year award. This was due to his progress in overcoming both the limitations of his 2023 injury and a slow start to the 2024 season that ultimately led the Bengals to a 9-8 record that once seemed all-but-impossible after the team got off to an early string of losses.
However, just the year before, the award was given to Ohio’s other famous starting NFL quarterback of the same name: Joe Flacco. This was due to Flacco turning the Browns into a serious postseason contender in 2023 after both Cleveland and Flacco himself each went through separate years-long droughts in securing wins at the NFL’s upper-most levels.
Can Flacco now do it again this season and turn the Bengals into a comeback contender? With a 2-3 season record that still remains wide open in front of him, only time will tell.