LBS- During Baltimore’s touchdown drive in the second quarter, Flacco split out to wide receiver as Lamar Jackson entered the game to take a snap at quarterback. The play was a 5-yard rush by Jackson, setting up a 2nd-and-5 from the Cincinnati 8.
Flacco’s showed extreme disinterest during the play, mostly standing straight up and not moving. Aikman, who was calling the game with Joe Buck for NFL Network, said Flacco was “not happy” about having to move. “If I’m Joe Flacco, I’m not happy about it,” Aikman said. “Joe’s not going to say anything, but I can tell you deep down, he doesn’t like it. If you’re a pocket passer, you’re the quarterback, you do not like running out to the wide receiver position and letting somebody else play quarterback. It’s as simple as that. They talked to me about it one time … that was not gonna happen. I don’t think Joe’s real thrilled about some of the things within that system with Lamar Jackson within that offense.” ----- Here's the thing, Troy Aikman is probably right. Joe Flacco, a Super Bowl winning quarterback, probably does loathe being used as an utterly useless prop during the limited amount of plays that have officially started the process of his replacement. I don't think there's all that much doubt that some resentment is harbored by an old dog as his body and its language make him a bystander to new tricks. That being said, I think it's best we leave the verbalization of those entirely assumed whimpers to the man that would have to answer to the legitimacy of them. For the most part, last night was a painful reminder of exactly why exactly no one that doesn't eat at Joe Flacco's dinner table really gives a damn what Joe Flacco wants. Each off-target toss, of which there were many, might as well have been accompanied by a ticking clock sound effect, as it's only a matter of time before the lights go out on the man whose professional career has largely been powered by the ridiculous amount of lightning he happened to catch in a bottle (that was presumably first emptied during the intoxication of his playoff opponents)...
I'm pretty sure he knows that, which is why mum is the word most used when he speaks of any type of quarterback controversy. Lamar Jackson is the Ravens' future because of both their present and their recent past at his particular position, not in spite of it. You'd think the color commentator for a national, primetime broadcast would be able to work that fact into his analysis when taking it upon himself to fictionalize a player's feelings. Joe Flacco should have plenty of time to become a miserable malcontent if he keeps playing his way onto the bench, but - as he's done so many times before - can we let him make that awful decision on his own accord? Sidenote: I would say there is no reason to keep an immobile, uninterested player on the field when that position could be manned by an actual playmaker. However, the visual of a quarterback that was racially type-cast as a receiver during the draft process motioning the statuesque white dude he's replacing out wide quenches my undying thirst for irony, and I don't want to dehydrate.
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