Colts’ Joe Flacco benching sheds new light on old Browns quarterback quibbles — Jimmy Watkins

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Indianapolis Colts coach Shane Steichen met with reporters Wednesday, and I hope Browns fans were sitting when they heard him speak. If you haven't learned the news yet, find a comfy chair, then brace your football heart. Because the Colts announced Wednesday an unthinkable decision:

Steichen is benching quarterback Joe Flacco after four starts (six appearances) this season.

Huh?! What?! Is Steichen crazy?! Flacco saved the Browns' 2023 season. He posted five straight 300-yard passing games to the end last season. He beat the Steelers in his first Colts appearance, threw eight touchdown passes over his first three games this season, and that's all a bitter Browns fanbase cares to remember.

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See, around Cleveland, Flacco symbolizes the late-season joy lacking in the 2-7 Browns. He is the anti-Deshaun Watson, the older Baker Mayfield, the latest face of angst for a city still in search of a franchise quarterback. When the Browns let Flacco sign elsewhere last offseason, fans couldn't let go.

Give the Dawg Pound a taste of success, it'll treasure you forever. Leave the city with a bad replacement, it might forget your flaws in the process.

Need a refresher? Flacco threw 10 interceptions during six starts with Cleveland last season, including two pick sixes during January's playoff loss to the Texans. He's thrown five more interceptions under Steichen and committed six turnovers during the Colts' recent two-game losing streak.

So, to answer your question — how could Steichen bench Flacco?! The Colts made this call because Flacco is playing less like Cleveland's 2023 savior, more like a 40-year-old quarterback with a big arm and too much confidence in it.

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Dating back to last season, when Flacco led Cleveland's free-spirited, football-launching parade, he's completed 64.3% of his passes for 3,090 yards, 23 touchdowns and 15 interceptions in his last 11 games. He ranks 31st among 57 qualifying quarterbacks in completion percentage over expected, 33rd in passing success rate and 37th in expected points added (EPA) per play during the same span.

His record as a starter is 5-5, 6-5 if you count his September win over Pittsburgh in relief of injured Colts starter Anthony Richardson (Browns fans would count it twice). And nothing about this resume depicts a good quarterback, unless you're comparing it to the league's worst (which, by EPA per play, success rate and total QBR, is Watson).

Think about it: When Browns fans waive pom poms after Flacco touchdown passes, do they really want a 40-year-old to lead their franchise? When they side-eye Cleveland's front office after every Mayfield win, do they actually miss debating weekly whether the Browns had a franchise quarterback? Or does the Dawg Pound simply wish the Browns were better than the basement, then project that feeling onto two men who led them higher?

I know my answer, and I'd advise you to find a comfy chair before hearing it. Are you sitting down?

Because Steichen made an obvious choice Wednesday to bench an aging, turnover-prone quarterback. The Browns are more than one Flacco or Mayfield short of Super Bowl contention (the reason they traded for Watson in the first place). And the city's lingering love for both quarterbacks highlights the franchise's current low more than your favorite peak of either player's tenure.

Put another way, the Flacco Fever fallout tells us more about Watson than Flacco, even if Flacco's heights are all this bitter fanbase cares to remember.