The decision by the Cleveland Browns to trade Joe Flacco to the Cincinnati Bengals — completing the rare NFL trade within the division — caught many by surprise.
Including the head coach, who will now coach against Flacco later this week.
Meeting the media on Monday, following the Pittsburgh Steelers’ win over those same Browns on Sunday, Pittsburgh head coach Mike Tomlin was asked about the move to trade Flacco to the Bengals.
And he did not hold back.
“You know to be honest, it was shocking to me,” started Tomlin. ”[Browns general manager] Andrew Berry must be a lot smarter than me or us because it doesn’t make sense to me to trade a quarterback that you think enough of to make your opening-day starter to a division opponent that’s hurting in that area.
”But that’s just my personal feeling.”
Cleveland benched Flacco ahead of their Week 5 game against the Minnesota Vikings, turning to rookie Dillon Gabriel. The rookie completed 19-of-33 passes for 190 yards and a pair of touchdowns in his first start, a game the Vikings won by a final score of 21-17.
Gabriel struggled against the Steelers on Sunday in a game Pittsburgh won by a final score of 23-9. Asked to throw a whopping 52 passes, Gabriel completed 29 of those for 221 yards, averaging 4.3 yards per attempt. He was also sacked six times in the loss.
We’ll see how Flacco fares, with his new team, against that Pittsburgh defense later this week.
