Why The Broncos Should Trade For Joe Flacco

Case Keenum has shown this season his ceiling is lower than the Broncos expected. If Elway decides to move on, here’s why he should give Joe Flacco a shot.

With a record of 6-8 and having been officially eliminated from postseason play for the third straight season, the Denver Broncos are one of the NFL’s best examples of an underachieving team in 2018.

The team is loaded with talent at the skill positions – when healthy, at least – and still own one of the best defensive front sevens that football has to offer.

So why have the Broncos been so mediocre this season? There are multiple factors that make up the answer to that question. For one, they have been badly battered by injuries to starters on both sides of the ball. Also holding them back is their standing as the fifth-most penalized team in the league, as well as questionable leadership and play-calling from the coaching staff.

But maybe their biggest setback this season has been the lack of a consistent passing game, specifically a downfield passing game. The Broncos signed Case Keenum to a two-year contract this past March, the type of contract that gave Keenum the opportunity to show that his 2017 season with the Vikings wasn’t a fluke.

The results after one season have shown Keenum to be a serviceable starting quarterback, one that might sneak you into the playoffs every few years with a good supporting cast, but probably never a Super Bowl winner.

It remains to be seen whether or not General Manager John Elway will elect to give Keenum one more year to show himself to be the Broncos’ franchise quarterback, but that would be a waste of time. Keenum has a ceiling, one that he probably hit his head on last season, and keeping him around would more than likely be accepting another season of mediocrity.

If the Broncos do decide to move on from Keenum, the question centers around who they decide to replace them with. After what has transpired in Baltimore in the last couple of weeks, it appears to be more and more likely that their former Super Bowl MVP quarterback in Joe Flacco will be among the Broncos options.

The addition of Flacco to replace Keenum would make sense for many reasons.

For starters, his big arm would make Courtland Sutton even more dangerous as a big-play threat and would give the passing game a lot more diversity. While the Broncos have completed the NFL’s 14th most passes of 25 or more yards this season, Keenum’s tendency to try to force passes downfield has led to a lot of under thrown and intercepted passes.

While Joe Flacco hasn’t played his best football in the last few years, one thing you’ll almost never see him do is under throw an open receiver downfield.

Along with his big arm, Flacco would bring with him 11 years of experience that has included more playoff starts than Drew Brees, Russell Wilson, Andrew Luck, and Eli Manning and one more playoff win than the great Aaron Rodgers. He is also the proud owner of a shiny Super Bowl ring from when he went through Peyton Manning and Tom Brady in the 2012 playoffs to win Super Bowl 47.

To top it off, no matter where Flacco ends up in 2019, he will be playing with a massive chip on his shoulder. The man was a franchise quarterback for the Ravens for 11 years, only to watch his team draft his replacement and then watch said replacement run him out of town in his rookie year.

If you think that won’t impact the way Joe Flacco plays next year, you’re wrong. He’ll want nothing more than to show his former team and the entire league that he can still play at a high level.

Given that the Broncos can find a way to work Flacco’s contract into their salary cap – potentially by restructuring Keenum’s deal or finding a trade destination for him – Elway should be inquiring the Ravens about Flacco as soon as he possibly can. After all, you don’t get the chance to get a Super Bowl MVP quarterback in your building very often.