Philadelphia Eagles: Joe Flacco feels destined to land in Philly
After letting Nick Foles walk last offseason, the Philadelphia Eagles very well may replace one former Super MVP backup quarterback with another, Joe Flacco.
If the Philadelphia Eagles enter 2020 with Nate Sudfeld as Carson Wentz‘s primary backup, fans may as well write off the season.
Okay, okay, that might be a bit harsh, but the sentiment holds true; Sudfeld has appeared in three mostly meaningless NFL games over his first three NFL seasons and has never looked like an NFL starting quarterback in this, the NFL.
The Eagles clearly love Sudfeld, as this is the second consecutive year where the team signed him to a one-year extension, but if he has to start three, four, nine games for Philly in 2020, it would all but surely dash any hopes of the team representing the NFC in Super Bowl LIV.
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No, to truly feel prepared for the rigors of yet another 16 game season, the Eagles have to identify some quarterback who can come in and back up Wentz without setting off any sort of Nick Foles-esque quarterback controversy.
So the Eagles need a good-but-not-great, boring quarterback? I think I know the perfect man for the job: Voorhees, NJ’s own Joe Flacco.
Yes Joe Flacco, a man who once purchased a 10 piece McNuggets combo minutes after signing a massive six-year, $120.6 million contract, I think we’ve found the perfect man for the job.
On paper, Flacco is pretty much the perfect man for the job, as he can win a game or two here or there, provide Wentz with a solid shoulder to lean on in the quarterbacks’ room, and likely won’t push too hard to unseat his younger counterpart if he struggles. Despite being named Super Bowl MVP in 2013, Flacco’s days as a viable NFL starter effectively ended in 2019 after a ghastly stretch of games with the Denver Broncos. With superior quarterbacks like Marcus Mariota, Jameis Winston, and potentially even Foles entering 2020 without a clear starting role on their new teams, Flacco should turn his attention to finding the right situation to close out his NFL career, both geographically, and schematically.
The Eagles check both boxes fairly well.
Philly is only 18.5 miles away from Voorhees, 46 miles from Flacco’s alma mater the University of Delaware, and 100 miles from Baltimore, the city that made ‘January Joe’ a millionaire a hundred times over. Regardless of Flacco’s snap count from week to week, returning to the Delaware Valley all but guarantees a slew of lucrative endorsement opportunities with car dealerships, insurance companies, and even holy grails like Royal Farms or Wawa. At 35, Flacco may want to begin transitioning into the second act of his life and establish roots for his family long-term close to home.
Flacco is also a solid enough fit in Doug Pederson‘s offensive scheme. While he lacks Wentz’s athleticism – an aspect of the 27-year-old’s game the team appears horrified to utilize – Flacco still has a good arm and can make any throw on the field. He may be among the least aggressive quarterbacks in the league as per SI’s Chad Jensen, but I’m of the belief that an uber-competitive mentality may actually be a detriment for a backup quarterback. Flacco no longer needs to be the man in Philly, a role he’s never been too good at filling as a pro, he just needs to come to work, put in work, and be a solid teammate.
Flacco initially struggled with not being ‘the guy’ both in Baltimore and in Denver, but eventually came around to passing the reins to a pair of young quarterbacks in Lamar Jackson and Drew Lock. Fortunately, the Eagles really don’t need a mentor for Wentz in 2020, or an exciting developmental prospect with starter upside of their own like Jalen Hurts in the draft, they just need a solid Plan B if he misses time or can’t complete the season.
Next. Replacing Malcolm Jenkins with Jalen Mills is crazy. dark
Joe Flacco may not be the most exciting player in the league, but he’s far more reliable than Nathan Sudfeld and could allow the Philadelphia Eagles to sleep easy knowing that they can weather a Carson Wentz injury decently well. In a lot of ways, Flacco is like an older version of Nick Foles aka the perfect backup quarterback.