Joe Flacco’s success in Cleveland would not have been duplicated with Jets

The chants rained down throughout the Browns’ 37-20 rout of the Jets that was in no way as close as the score might indicate. Fans packed inside the building once affectionately nicknamed the Factory of Sadness needed their savior to feel their appreciation — so they screamed his name over and over and over.

Flacco … Flacco … Flacco.

The 38-year-old Browns quarterback, signed off the streets on Nov. 20 and named starter four days later, clinched Cleveland’s playoff berth with his 309-yard, three-touchdown performance. He’s now won his last four starts — a fairytale writing a somewhat unfathomable new chapter each week.

On the other sideline, though, rested a team with no such joy. The Jets, too, needed a quarterback — all the way back in Week 1. They chose not to pursue Joe Flacco, were eliminated from the postseason two weeks ago, and now watched as he lit up their “championship-level” defense to send the Browns where the Jets haven’t been in 13 years.

Could this magical run have been theirs? Could they have been experiencing what they were instead witnessing? Did they make a mistake?

No, they didn’t.

Flacco deserves immense amounts of credit for what he is accomplishing, but none of this would have been possible with the Jets.

Coach Robert Saleh and GM Joe Douglas are coming back in 2024 — Woody Johnson made that official a week ago. That’s fine, justified, even, if ownership prefers to give the two a chance to see a season through with quarterback Aaron Rodgers instead of blowing it all up now. But that does not absolve the men of their mishaps that have the Jets in this position.

It is Douglas who, during his five years, has failed to field a competent offensive line. Yes, injuries derailed the unit this season, but they were below average even with their five paper starters. It is Douglas who, with plenty of game changers there at No. 15 (Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Zay Flowers), chose a defensive end who is limited to a handful of snaps each…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/joe-flaccos-success-cleveland-not-060358909.html

Author : SNY

Publish date : 2023-12-29 06:03:58

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