On Wednesday, the Indianapolis Colts reverted back to second-year quarterback Anthony Richardson as their starter over veteran Joe Flacco for their Week 11 game against the New York Jets. And days later, Flacco spoke to reporters about what his return to the bench means for him.
At 39 years of age, Flacco perhaps may have seen his final opportunity at starting in the NFL go away after getting starts in each of the last two games for the Colts.
Struggles with turnovers and a failure to move the ball offensively led to Flacco’s starting job being given back to Richardson, with four interceptions in the last two games for Flacco.
Now, Flacco will again serve in a mentor role for Richardson from the sidelines, which he is seemingly quite disappointed about.
“I really do feel disappointed in the way the last couple of weeks went,” Flacco told reporters on Wednesday. “When you walk into this locker room, you want to be able to really, really hold your head high and feel like you’ve done the best for the team. And I didn’t necessarily feel like I did that.”
At the best of times, Flacco has shown that he can provide a significant boost to the passing game of many teams. But it just didn’t work out in Indianapolis the same way that it did with the Cleveland Browns last year, which resulted in him being named the Comeback Player of the Year last season.
Considering his advanced age and recent struggles, it sure seems like it may be unlikely that we see Flacco get another chance at seeing the field barring any kind of injury to Richardson. But given Richardson’s injury history in his NFL career thus far, anything is possible…
[Indianapolis Colts on YouTube]
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.