Is Joe Flacco a Smokescreen for SNF?
The Minnesota Vikings get the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday Night Football this week. Although Kirk Cousins isn’t employed to bring his typical primetime flavor, Kevin O’Connell’s team could face a veteran on the opposite sideline. Rumors about Joe Flacco taking over as the Colts starter are present, but is it all just a smokescreen?
Is Joe Flacco a Smokescreen for SNF?
When the Indianapolis Colts drafted Anthony Richardson, they intended for him to be their franchise quarterback. He was among the highest risers in the NFL Draft, and it was his enticing athleticism that rocketed him up draft boards. There were always red flags, though, and among the most glaring was an overall lack of experience.
Spending last season recovering from injury, Richardson missed a significant amount of developmental time. This season, he has spent a few games injured as well. When he has been on the field things haven’t been pretty, and that couldn’t have been more glaring than last weekend against the Houston Texans. Richardson was both bad and inefficient in what wound up being just a three-point loss. So, is it time for Flacco to take back over?
The 17-year veteran hasn’t been a consistent starter in the league since 2017. He is on his fifth team since that year and came in off the couch last season to bail out the Cleveland Browns. He has played in four games this year, starting two of them. Flacco has a 7-to-1 TD/INT ratio and is completing roughly 65% of his passes.
His skill set is much different from that of Richardson’s, and it has evolved as he has gotten older. Flacco is not a significant risk-taker, but he also isn’t prone to many mistakes. He would be a challenge for the Vikings’ defense because there is less opportunity to expose some great weakness. The upside may not be the same, but Indianapolis may just want to take a one-game-at-a-time approach.
It would be somewhat jarring for the Colts to go with Flacco. This would reflect where Richardson is at as a player, not his injury. In the long term, the Colts still need an answer about whether they want to propel the franchise forward. That answer almost certainly won’t be Flacco, who has already dabbled in the retirement world.
For now, the Vikings have to prepare for both quarterbacks. It remains to be seen how Minnesota prepares and handles them. They’ll find out on Sunday which one will get the most run.
Ted Schwerzler is a blogger from the Twin Cities that is focused on all things Minnesota Twins and Minnesota Vikings. He’s active on Twitter and writes daily for Minnesota Sports Fan. As a former college athlete and avid sports fan, covering our pro teams with a passion has always seemed like such a natural outlet.
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