Official Serious Debate: When was the last time the team was this depressing?

[bojanglesman]

I also don't think Joe Flacco would have been an upgrade over Zach Wilson in our team last year. Our mess of an OL looks nothing like Cleveland's and Flacco playing statues behind it would have been disastrous.

Yep.  Our offensive line and it's 11 million injuries was the deal sealer for this team no matter who was at QB.  Even Rodgers would have struggled, albeit not as much.

[SixFeetDeep]

I also don't think Joe Flacco would have been an upgrade over Zach Wilson in our team last year. Our mess of an OL looks nothing like Cleveland's and Flacco playing statues behind it would have been disastrous.

I’m not accepting this as an excuse

Joe Douglas failed the minute we went into the 2023 season with that OL unit and a 37 year old QB

[Johnny English]

I’m not accepting this as an excuse

Joe Douglas failed the minute we went into the 2023 season with that OL unit and a 37 year old QB

Sure, but he wasn't fixing it with an equally old and even less mobile replacement QB.

You shouldn't be wanting him fired because he didn't sign Flacco, you should be wanting him fired because he put us in a position where it needed to be considered.

[Jumbo]

Even if we got peak Browns Flacco it maybe would have been worth another win. And then we'd be bitching about draft position even more

[SixFeetDeep]

Even if we got peak Browns Flacco it maybe would have been worth another win. And then we'd be bitching about draft position even more

Probably true, but another 2 wins could have potentially gotten us into the playoffs

That would have changed the narrative on this season quite a bit

[Jumbo]

Probably true, but another 2 wins could have potentially gotten us into the playoffs

That would have changed the narrative on this season quite a bit

It took 10 wins to get into the playoffs in the AFC so no it wouldn't have

Regardless, it's stupid to speculate. We saw Flacco here and he was bad because our offensive scheme and personnel have been overall bad.

[SixFeetDeep]

Patriots week 3, Raiders, and Falcons all insanely winnable games

[Johnny English]

Conversely, Flacco probably throws a bunch of picks and loses us the game in Denver, he likely doesn't play as well as Zach did against Houston, and he could easily have lost against the Giants because Thibodeaux would have destroyed him. The assumption that Flacco wins all the games that Zach did plus some of the ones he didn't is a massive stretch.

[SixFeetDeep]

It’s not a massive stretch, Zach was one of the worst QBs in the NFL

We had a defense that kept us in almost every game. Anything closer to League average QB play and it’s certainly arguable that we win more games

[SixFeetDeep]

The “OL was too bad” point has already been covered.  By me probably more than anyone here. This conversation is about whether the GM did an acceptable job, not how good or bad Joe Flacco would have been.

[Heismanberg]

Conversely, Flacco probably throws a bunch of picks and loses us the game in Denver, he likely doesn't play as well as Zach did against Houston, and he could easily have lost against the Giants because Thibodeaux would have destroyed him. The assumption that Flacco wins all the games that Zach did plus some of the ones he didn't is a massive stretch.

So Joe Flacco would've been a better Tank Commander?

[bojanglesman]

The “OL was too bad” point has already been covered.  By me probably more than anyone here. This conversation is about whether the GM did an acceptable job, not how good or bad Joe Flacco would have been.

With the amount of injuries we had on the line, I'm not sure anyone could have done enough to cover up for that.  You could argue that our depth was not high enough quality, but damn near everyone died at RG.

[SixFeetDeep]

I wanted Zach to succeed this season (I am a Zach fan)

He was benched by week 11 for Tim freaking Boyle

[Johnny English]

So Joe Flacco would've been a better Tank Commander?

Maybe. Maybe he'd have won the same number of games as Zach. Maybe he'd have won games Zach lost and lost games Zach won. Most likely he'd have been destroyed and done for the season by week 6. It's impossible to know for sure, but the one thing I am very sure of is that he wouldn't have solved any of the actual problems with the team.

[SixFeetDeep]

With the amount of injuries we had on the line, I'm not sure anyone could have done enough to cover up for that.  You could argue that our depth was not high enough quality, but damn near everyone died at RG.

We went into the season with Duane Brown and Billy Turner as our starting OTs

We deserved everything that happened this season