CINCINNATI \u2014 After opening the season as the starting quarterback for the Cleveland Browns facing the Cincinnati Bengals, Joe Flacco will close the season as the backup for the Bengals as they face the Browns on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Flacco was dealt to the Bengals in October and made six starts for the Bengals while Joe Burrow was out with a toe injury.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t really think about putting a label on it,\u201d Flacco said. \u201cIt\u2019s crazy. Seasons always go by quick once they\u2019ve started. But the way that this one went, it seems like it flew by.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the summer, in Cleveland Browns training camp, Flacco won a competition for the starting quarterback job and made four starts for Cleveland. In Week 1 against the Bengals, Flacco threw for 290 yards.<\/p>\n
He said that over the past 17 weeks, he has seen improvement from the Bengals’ defence. Now, he refers to the Bengals’ defence as his team\u2019s defence.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re stopping the run,\u201d Flacco said. \u201cWe\u2019re getting more pressure on the quarterback. When you combine those two things, it\u2019s going to help you out.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Flacco went 1-5 as a starter in Cincinnati, the 40-year-old played well. He threw for at least 200 yards in four of his six starts, and the Bengals offence averaged more than 27 points per game.<\/p>\n
Flacco said that he developed a lot of respect for Bengals coach Zac Taylor.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has a lot of strengths,\u201d Flacco said. \u201cHe\u2019s really good at what he does. His demeanour, his overall personality and the way he leads men are really good. The way he puts game plans together. Also, he\u2019s willing to allow it to be collaborative. That\u2019s a strength. His game day play-calling is also something he does really well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Burrow took over as the starter when he returned on Thanksgiving, and Flacco has been the backup over the past month.<\/p>\n
Flacco will be a free agent again at the end of the season. As he evaluates his options, he\u2019s hoping to find another chance to play and to start.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s always a priority,\u201d Flacco said. \u201cI\u2019m somebody who wants to play football. You\u2019ve got to assess and see whatever is thrown your way. You have to go from there and see what you can do about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said that he\u2019d be open to returning to the Bengals, but he\u2019ll weigh several factors.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t really thought about it,\u201d Flacco said. \u201cI don\u2019t hope to do anything. I have an idea of maybe of what some goals would be. I\u2019ll go from there and see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CINCINNATI \u2014 After opening the season as the starting quarterback for the Cleveland Browns facing the Cincinnati Bengals,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,514,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-384802","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}