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Bengals Trade for Joe Flacco! Fantasy Impact for Ja'Marr Chase, Tee Higgins & Superflex Leagues! (10/07 Fantasy Football Podcast)
In a surprising trade, the Cincinnati Bengals acquire Joe Flacco to bolster their quarterback situation. This move has significant implications for fantasy football, particularly for Ja'Marr Chas...
Bengals Trade for Joe Flacco! Fantasy Impact for Ja'Marr Chase, Tee Higgins & Superflex Leagues! (10/07 Fantasy Football Podcast)
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Interactive Transcript
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Well, we don't usually get breaking news right before the segment that is so relevant for
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the breaking news, but the Cleveland Browns and the Cincinnati Bengals are making a trade
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and Joe Flacco is going to the Bengals.
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They needed a quarterback upgrade.
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Hopefully they're getting it.
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Cleveland certainly did not get a quarterback upgrade with Joe Flacco.
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He was really bad.
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He averaged 5.1 yards per attempt with the Browns.
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A couple of years ago with the Browns, he averaged 7.9 yards per attempt.
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So hopefully he's still got something left in the tank as we welcome you back to Fantasy
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Football today presented by Bed MGM.
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And this is huge news.
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More so for Chase and Higgins.
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So Jamie, take it away.
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Your analysis of this trade according to Ian Rappaport and Tom Pellas-Saro, the Bengals
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trading for Joe Flacco.
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I mean, look, they got another version of Jake Browning, but maybe it's a more competent
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version of Jake Browning.
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He's not going to be mobile.
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He's going to still have to deal with that bad offensive line that Browning was dealing
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with.
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But give the Bengals credit for at least trying.
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Now we would have preferred, let's say, a James Winston or somebody that could, I think,
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take the receiving court to another level.
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But like you said, we've seen Flacco and his history do this.
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We just got to get him now to play for the Steelers at some point and he gets the whole
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AFC North locked up.
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But at this point, look, give the Bengals some credit for trying.
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It just hasn't been working with Browning.
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The Intercepts has been an issue.
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At least when you saw last week for Chase, in particular, I know Higgins had to touch
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down.
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When the matchup is not so overwhelming where the quarterback play is going to be such
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a deficit, they still have the ability to produce at a high level.
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And so the two weeks prior where they struggle with the defenses that they faced, then they
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play the Lions with that bad secondary.
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This is going to be a tough matchup still against the Green Bay Packers.
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You expect at least, he's coming in with the ability to get the game plan in, showing
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up on Tuesday, so they could do all their installs for Flacco on Wednesday and he's most likely
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starting against the Packers.
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But I just give them credit for trying.
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They're trying to salvage their season two and three after two and no start.
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Loose three straight games after losing Joe Borough.
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They just got to try and stay close to 500 until Borough is able to come back and maybe
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they can make a playoff push.
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But for the receivers for fantasy, this is me a slight upgrade.
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I'm definitely starting to march.
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Chase, I was starting in many way.
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He was a top 10 wide receiver for this week.
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Higgins gets closer now to the top 24.
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You need to see it.
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But I do think that.
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If we are talking about one thing in particular, the downfield throws will be there for Higgins.
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That's something that Jake Browning has not been doing and I think Higgins will benefit
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the most from this.
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And we saw that with Flacco and Cleveland, his attempt to rate on passes of 15 plus
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area yards was 21.3 percent.
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That's higher than what Jake Browning was at.
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I also want to tell you that Flacco had a better catchable throw rate than Jake Browning.
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And he also had 11 drops by his receivers in Cleveland.
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That's pretty much why his completion rate was lower than Jake Browning.
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So he's going to take more chances down field.
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That's great for both wide receivers.
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And you know the Bengals are going to have to continue to throw their defenses.
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If it gets better at all, it'll only be nominally better.
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They're really not in a position for that defensive to be great.
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So you know what the game script is going to be every week.
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And you also know that Joe Flacco doesn't consistently throw to his running backs out of
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the backfield.
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I know in week one for Cleveland, he threw a ton to those running backs.
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Not sure he's going to do it that much.
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That might hurt Chase Brown just a little bit.
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I think this is, it's like he said, Jamie, it's a slight upgrade for Chase and Higgins.
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And it gives them somebody that will be willing to throw a little bit further down field.
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And isn't as bad as the stats made him look when he was in Cleveland.
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I hope so.
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He throws a lot.
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I mean, he very often throws 40 or more pass attempts.
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So I don't see why that wouldn't necessarily continue.
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That's kind of how the Bengals run their offense.
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They like to throw the ball as well.
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So we're in a super flex league together.
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I don't have that much money left.
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I put in a bid for Joe Flacco who I originally drafted and then dropped.
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And now I'm trying to get him back.
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You know, it is what it is.
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But I guess from that perspective, just I can't imagine people are going to pick him up
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in a one QB league, but maybe he's Jason Higgins.
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How much of your fab would you spend based on your original budget in a super flex league
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for Joe Flacco?
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If they're committing to him for the rest of the season, you got to go north to 15%.
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I mean, you know, we're talking about again.
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This is scarce quarterback production.
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And so many people, I know I did in one super flex league, spend a lot of their fab on Jake Browning,
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you know, which the idea with the idea of this receiving core, this offense is going to
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build that quarterback up to the level of 18 plus points per game on a consistent basis.
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That's what Browning was doing in 2023 when he was a starter for those seven games.
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That's obviously what Joe Borough does.
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I mean, we just haven't seen it for the majority of this tenure.
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Week two, when he stepped in, he had a great fantasy production.
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He had great fantasy production.
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Week five, he had great fantasy production.
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You know what you're getting.
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I think Flacco's going to be a similar type of player.
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So that 2023 season, when Flacco came back, I don't feel like it's forever ago.
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And he's now gone from 38 years old to 40.
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So he's not getting any better.
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But he was consistently 300 yards in the last five games, five elastics games.
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He was over 20 fantasy points in that stretch as well.
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So he still has that ability.
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And I do think to compare the Cleveland situation in the Cincinnati situation,
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not exactly fair because this receiving court just is so much better.
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So yes, he did struggle with the Browns start this season.
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Yes, he's older and probably washed up.
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But hopefully the Bengals are making the move that this guy still
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going to have something left to really just elevate that offense as a whole.
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Yeah, those receivers will absolutely help his numbers.
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And it's kind of funny.
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He's playing the Packers for the second time this year.
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Everybody took them on already earlier this year with Cleveland.
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And who won that game, by the way?
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He won.
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He won that game.
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So, his numbers weren't great.
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Stung for fantasy, but he's got some experience against this opponent.
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So I don't know if we're ready to just say since the
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NAD is going to fold up shop and not get any points this week against the Packers.
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Tough matchup, but Flacco has some experience against them already.
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Yeah, I just want to just we know that they made the trade.
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We don't know who the starter is for this week.
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They might think it's too soon.
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They might be just getting depth and putting Jake Browning on notice saying,
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you know, you got one more chance?
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Well, probably, but just we don't know that yet.
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They haven't announced it.
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So to make a trade on a Tuesday and have them start on a Sunday might be kind of difficult.
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Sure.
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The fact that he faced them does help.
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I mean, this is a guy that came off the couch and started for the the Browns once
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up one of the time.
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Like he's going to be fine.
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Right.
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And he's been in a version of this offense multiple times in his career.
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Paramount podcasts.
Topics Covered
Joe Flacco trade
Cleveland Browns
Cincinnati Bengals
quarterback upgrade
fantasy football analysis
Chase and Higgins
Jake Browning
Green Bay Packers matchup
fantasy production
AFC North
wide receiver performance
quarterback statistics
NFL news
fantasy football strategy
super flex league
quarterback depth