Saleh Is Correct: Flacco Could Absolutely Start For An NFL Team—Namely The Jets
NFL head coaches at press conference are typically so overly effusive in their praise of their players that the actual words tend to be dismissed without much analytical thought.
Yet when Jets Head Coach Robert Saleh mentioned after Wednesday’s practice that Joe Flacco “is a starting quarterback in this league”, my initial reaction was, “Yeah, he probably could be--on the Jets.”
Now, barring an injury, there is no chance that Flacco, 37, will usurp Zach Wilson as Gang Green’s starting QB when the regular season commences on September 11 versus visiting Baltimore, Still, we all know that the pecking order has little to do with merit. The Jets are all in on their investment in Wilson, their No. 2 overall selection in the 2021 NFL Draft, at least for this season, despite Wilson’s lousy performance as a rookie.
However, it’s a decision that I think deserves a closer look. Most NFL clubs go with the standard “whoever gives us the best chance to win on Sundays” ethos when allocating playing time, no matter the position. This situation might prove to be a rare exception, though fans won’t be able to judge the competition for themselves in apples-to-apples settings.
That’s because, unfortunately, we aren’t likely to garner sufficient evidence from preseason reps, including how much, if at all, Wilson has improved from Year 1 to Year 2. If, as Saleh implied, Saturday’s Green/White scrimmage follows last year’s script, it will be the Jets’ first full-contact practice of training camp, and QBs won’t get hit anyway. The preseason contests are also anything but harbingers—remember how well Wilson fared a year ago (15-for-20, 191 yards, two touchdowns, and no interceptions)?
Like all preseason affairs, it meant bupkis, as Wilson went on to rank last among the 31 QBs with at least 320 plays in RBSDM.com’s expected points added per play/completion percentage over expected composite metric last season. In my view, everything changed when Wilson stepped under center for the first time in a game that mattered, the Week 1 tilt in Carolina, where the level of pressure he faced was unlike any he’d ever seen. He took a beating that day, which set the tone for the ugly four-interception outing in Gang Green’s home opener against New England the following week.
After Wilson injured his knee in another Patriots rout on October 24 that dropped the Jets record to 1-5, General Manager Joe Douglas acquired Flacco from Philadelphia in a trade for a sixth-round pick. Ironically, or tragically from a Jets fan’s perspective, all three QBs (Mike White, Josh Johnson, and then Flacco) who saw action in the ensuing four weeks looked immeasurably more comfortable running Coordinator Mike LaFleur’s offense than Wilson ever did, save for a crazy overtime victory over Tennessee in Week 4 where Wilson fell three yards short of cracking the relatively low bar of 300 yards passing for the only time this season.
Flacco got the final start during Wilson’s absence in Week 11, whereupon he threw for 291 yards while keeping New York in the game into the fourth quarter before Miami held on for a 24-17 victory at Met Life Stadium. Outside of a red-zone strip-sack fumble from free-rushing Dolphins safety Brandon Jones that negated a first quarter scoring opportunity, Flacco played mistake-free while tossing two TDs. One was a 62-yarder to wide receiver Elijah Moore in the kind of San Francisco-style, catch-and-run play into space that Wilson delivered too infrequently, possibly because he was too busy figuring out ways to avoid the pass rush and then improvise from there.
Obviously, one game isn’t enough of a sample size to reach any conclusions, but when you combine the performances of the other far-less talented backups (White reached short-lived legendary status with his 405 yards passing to defeat Super Bowl-bound Cincinnati and then, in a loss at Indianapolis, journeyman Johnson threw for 317 yards--in three quarters!), it seems pretty clear that Wilson was a very big part of the problem.
It also seems clear that the Jets want Wilson to try to play more like Jimmy Garoppolo and less like a poor man’s Patrick Mahomes, getting rid of the ball quicker even if it means taking fewer chances. Processing the game that way is going to take time and I doubt that the light has clicked on for him in training camp, no matter what practice stats the beat writers are providing.
The Jets early-season schedule is brutal, starting with four straight contests against physically-tough AFC North foes. Wilson will undoubtedly be first in line to face those challenges, but can anyone honestly say that he is the best fit to manage those games?
Flacco has come a long way down from leading the Ravens to a Super Bowl victory in 2013. He’s 6-16 in his last 22 decisions over the last four seasons, cementing his status as a backup. Never mobile, injuries and age have further limited his ability to escape pressure. In no way should he be part of the Jets’ future plans at the position.
Still, as they say in politics, we’re not measuring him against the almighty; we’re comparing him to the alternative. In that vein, it shouldn’t be shocking if Saleh is proven correct and we see Flacco calling signals for the Jets at certain points this season.