CINCINNATI – If you want to know how much work there is to be done to get new Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Flacco up to speed, consider that the team has nixed what typically is a 12- to 15-minute, post-practice Wednesday news conference for the starting quarterback.
It’s not that the Bengals are reluctant to commit to Flacco being the starter this week ahead of the struggling Jake Browning.
Head coach Zac Taylor made that clear during his own news conference prior to practice.
“We’ll start him this week,” Taylor said less than 30 seconds into the news conference. “He’s gonna take all the reps and get ready to go. Already spent a lot of time meeting with us, getting up to speed, so feely really good where he’s at.”
Taylor waited even less time to tell Flacco the plan when he called him after the trade.
“That was probably the second sentence I told him,” he said. “Welcome to the club and we’re ready to start you on Sunday.”
“This is the move we felt we needed to make right now, and we’re excited about it,” Taylor added.
Browning did not agree with the move, but benched quarterbacks rarely do.
The expectation is that Flacco will have the league-mandated starting quarterback news conference after the team finishes practicing this week.
So we’ll have to wait a few days to get his thoughts on the whole process.
But Taylor detailed the speed-dating nature of Tuesday’s acclimation period after the team finalized the trade around 2 p.m.
The Bengals hired two drivers, one to bring Flacco and his wife down Interstate 71 from Cleveland and Cincinnati, and one to drive their car, with as many of their possessions piled into both vehicles.
The second driver and car enabled Flacco to download documents and communicate with Taylor and focus on the Bengals scheme rather than traffic.
“We were able to send him the information to study, talk to him on the phone as he (rode) down, gave him a break, let him then come in the facility, and we got a chance to meet last night and then met this morning,” Taylor said.
“Initially, I was thinking ‘we’ll FaceTime him,’ and then I thought, ‘That’s a little awkward, to just stare at each other when you’re just having a conversation,’” Taylor said. “So we just put it on speaker phone and talked that way.”
Taylor said he’s always admired Flacco’s play, but the two had only met once before Tuesday.
That was last year when the Colts came to Cincinnati for joint practices ahead of their preseason game.
The personal connection can wait. The playbook acclimation is the most important thing at the moment.
Taylor said he was trying to bake in some extra time on the field for Flacco without asking too much from the rest of the players, who play two games in the next eight days with the Pittsburgh Steelers and Thursday Night Football on tap after the Green Bay game.
There is no plan for extra throwing sessions with Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins or any other receivers.
“We’ll spend a little more time at the end of practice. A little more time,” Taylor said. “Not full speed practice, necessarily, but just voicing some calls. That’s always the No. 1 challenge. You look at a script. You look at an install. You say it in your head. It all sounds easy. But then to say it out loud can sound differently.
“So we’ll spend whatever time is needed, extra, making sure he’s out on the grass, just some verbal stuff, making sure we feel good about it,” Taylor added. “I’m not gonna tax Ja’Marr and Tee. I am mindful that we do have a game next Thursday as well. If anything, I’m gonna make sure that they’re good to go. If anything, just standing and catching so they can feel the power of his throw.”
Even though Flacco is in his 18th season with 200 games under his belt, learning a new offense, new coaching staff and new teammates at this sort of breakneck speed is a lot to ask.
Left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. said he could appreciate how hard it would be it he had to do it, which doesn’t come close to comparing the mental acumen needed for a quarterback.
“It’s way harder for a quarterback, just in terms of playbook, formations, motions, cadence, calls, slide calls, protection calls, MIKE IDs, all those different things,” Brown said. “There’s so much that goes into it.
“I couldn’t imagine it, but he is 40 years old. What is this, year 18 for him?” Brown said. “He’s been doing this s—t for a long time, man. He’s heard it all. He’s seen it all. He’s done it all.”
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