CINCINNATI — Coach Zac Taylor immediately welcomed Joe Flacco when he reached him by phone after the Cincinnati Bengals acquired the veteran quarterback from the Cleveland Browns on Tuesday.
Second, Flacco needed to be informed that he would be the starter on Sunday against the Green Bay Packers.
“I only met him once before he came here, but I know his game,” Taylor said Wednesday after Flacco was announced as the starter. “Played against him, I don't know, a lot of times, a lot. Really happy with his style, the concepts he's good at, the things that suit us and what we do. There's a lot of carryover in the terminology, more than I expected, so I feel like we can get him up to speed quickly.”
Taylor benched Jake Browning after three starts that resulted in huge losses. In those three games, Browning completed 64.1% of his passes and had five interceptions.
With the Bengals holding a 2-3 record in the wide-open AFC North, the front office explored the trade market for a new starting quarterback and settled on the 40-year-old Flacco.
“He's a great passer,” Taylor said. “We've got to expand every area of our offense to get better, be efficient, run the ball better, defend better, all those things. The number one trait you look for is a guy who can run your system and throw the ball. Joe has always been a tremendous passer in this league and we've seen that. We have tremendous weapons that he can play with and so I'm excited to watch him do that.”
Flacco debuted in 2008 and played in exactly 200 NFL games. He opened the season as the Browns' starting quarterback and nearly led the team to a Week 1 win over the Bengals.
In Week 3, Flacco's Browns beat the Packers 13–10. Flacco, who completed 21 of 36 passes for 142 yards and an interception on Sept. 21, has already put together a game plan for Green Bay's defense, and there's little in the league that he hasn't seen on defense.
“It’s different than a young quarterback trying to learn the system and understand what the defense is trying to do to challenge you,” Taylor said. “He played in Green Bay this year, so he's already had a week of preparation. That's the good part. The communication and the weekly rhythm is probably different and unique. He's already prepared for this opponent. He's got a chance to freshen up on that while learning our system, our terminology, our verbiage and the way we work. He hasn't played there this year, so the crowd noise and all that stuff. different, but at least he has some experience playing against them.”
The Bengals move forward with Browning as their backup and former Packers reserve Sean Clifford as the third player on their practice squad.
Packers coach Matt LaFleur said Wednesday he believes Flacco can fit into the Bengals' offense in a short period of time.
“I think the hardest thing for them will be the nuances: your cadence, your number of snaps, your chemistry with other players,” LaFleur said. “I think whatever the defense is, you have to, you have to go against what they've traditionally been shooting on film for a long period of time.”
Flacco's onboarding began quickly after the deal closed on Tuesday. Taylor and Flacco discussed the game plan over the phone during Flacco's trip from Cleveland to Cincinnati.
“It fits with what we do,” Taylor said. “You don't have to change too much. You just have to master it with the full scope of what we have in our arsenal.”
