Joe Flacco vs. the Jets: He's winning, they're still losing
Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Flacco talks with reporters following an NFL game against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Cincinnati on Oct. 16. Credit: AP/Jeff Dean
Joe Flacco spent three years with the Jets. Three long years with the Jets.
“I remember driving home on the Turnpike after losing a game and shaking my head and talking to my family like, ‘What the hell am I doing? This is not fun,’ ” the quarterback said this past week.
Oh, sure, there were good times, too. Good relationships with teammates, some of whom remain on the team. But mostly his experience as a Jet was a big ol’ downer.
“I don’t know if I necessarily enjoyed how everything went on the field there,” he said, “but I am super-grateful for my time there. It’s just one of those times in my career that you had to fight through some things and kind of get to the next step.”
Flacco did that. The season after he left the Jets, he was named the NFL’s Comeback Player of the Year with the Browns.
What did he come back from? Pretty much from being a Jet.
Now he is with the Bengals, the latest replacement for the injured Joe Burrow, just added to their roster via a rare intradivision trade after starting this season in Cleveland. He is coming off a dazzling performance in a Thursday night win over the Steelers on Oct. 16. He has Cincinnati abuzz and hopeful that he might be able to do the unthinkable: Keep the Bengals relevant long enough for Burrow to potentially return very late in the season and possibly lead them into the playoffs.
The Jets? They’re still stuck in park with their blinkers flashing on the Turnpike wondering what they’re doing. Flacco reached his exit; this team seems trapped on the long road to nowhere.
The past week certainly was another reminder of that. The Jets saw once-and-possibly-current starting quarterback Justin Fields, to whom they just gave a two-year, $40 million contract, publicly eviscerated . . . by the team’s own owner. Coach Aaron Glenn ducked questions about who will be starting this game at quarterback in the name of a “competitive advantage” that neither of his options, Fields or Tyrod Taylor, likely provides. They remain the only winless team in the league, with the potential of going into their bye next week sitting on a big goose egg at 0-8.
And now on Sunday, they get the pleasure of facing a quarterback who once was in their building — a 40-something who had championship success before becoming a Jet, floundered here and went on to regain his successful form elsewhere — for the second time this season!
“I hope the outcome is better for us this time,” defensive tackle Harrison Phillips said in reference to the Week 1 loss to Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers.
At least back then the Jets had hope. Back then they were competitive. They almost beat the Steelers. Now all they are is a stain on the resumes of two likely Hall of Fame quarterbacks who are still performing well at advanced ages when most others have long since retired.
There isn’t a grudge against Flacco in the Jets’ locker room. On the contrary, nearly all of the players who were with the Jets when he played here and still remain were tickled to see their former teammate winning games and having a blast doing so.
“That’s my dawg,” Jets linebacker Quincy Williams said. “He’s cool people. He’s one of those old heads who will jump off the couch and throw a touchdown . . . I’m not amazed. It’s one of those things where he puts himself in position every single time with his work ethic and stuff.”
Tight end Jeremy Ruckert said Flacco was one of his favorite teammates of all time. He was a rookie in Flacco’s last year here and they spent a lot of time working together on the practice squad while Flacco was the backup to Zach Wilson.
“He definitely has fun out there,” Ruckert said. “That’s one thing that people may overlook with him being an older guy in the league, but he knows how to have fun. He knows how to enjoy wins and celebrate with his guys. He doesn’t take for granted all his history, and you can tell every time he steps out there, he is having fun. He feels like he is still young out there and having a good time playing football.”
Flacco said he forged close relationships during his time with the Jets, even if they sometimes were overshadowed by all of the losing. In his three years here, he was 1-8 as a starter with 14 touchdown passes and six interceptions. The team went 13-37 under Adam Gase and Robert Saleh.
“A lot of great guys on that team and a lot of great memories with them,” he said. “I’ve been with a handful of these guys and have a lot of respect for the way they play the game. I know it’s probably tough there right now, but I know it’s a group that will come ready to play.”
They know that about Flacco, too, that he’ll be ready for them.
And if he can beat them, it won’t be just another Jets loss in a season that is rapidly filling with them. It will be another embarrassing failure against a quarterback with whom they could not make it work but who now is getting the job done.
Would the Jets have been better off sticking with Flacco? Sticking with Rodgers? It’s hard to say that. The infrastructures into which those veterans arrived might not have been ripe for anyone to have a truly positive impact. And Rodgers in particular brought a bad dynamic to the team from which it is still trying to recover.
What such meetings do remind the Jets of, though, is that players can leave and find fulfillment and smiles and wins elsewhere.
They just never seem to find any of that here.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
