Denver Broncos received some pretty bad news on Thursday regarding the neck injury of their starting quarterback Joe Flacco. It looks like Flacco will miss at least six weeks of football recovering and will probably end up on the injured reserve.
According to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, this news was delivered to Broncos after Flacco received a second opinion on the injury. He will seek additional opinion, but it seems like that won’t change the Broncos’ decision to place him on IR.
Flacco was diagnosed with a herniated disk in his neck last week, but he won’t require surgery. Still, it doesn’t make sense for Broncos to keep a roster place open for him as they are currently 2-6 and don’t have a season to salvage. The team will probably end up testing their younger quarterbacks, especially Drew Lock, whom they took in the second round of 2019 NFL Draft.
There is a big possibility that Joe Flacco has played his last game with the Broncos. So far, he didn’t show he can lead the team to winning ways, and Denver isn’t interested in being just mediocre. This is why the team might be tempted to move on from Flacco in March.
Broncos would have to eat up $13.6 million in dead money in 2020 if they release Flacco, but this sounds like a better option than paying him $23.65 million for a losing record. The 34-year-old signal-caller is set to earn $27.65 million in 2021 under his current contract, with the 2022 and 2023 being team options.
In eight games he played with Broncos this season, Flacco completed 65.3 percent of his passes while throwing for 1,822 yards, six touchdowns, and five interceptions.
