Denver Broncos: Joe Flacco was nearly traded to another team

The Denver Broncos were apparently fortunate to be able to acquire Joe Flacco from the Baltimore Ravens, as they had competition for his services.

The Denver Broncos were apparently dealt a hand of good fortune in the Joe Flacco trade as they were not the only team in pursuit of his services.

According to Albert Breer of SI.com and Monday Morning Quarterback, the Broncos’ competition came from the NFC East. The Washington Redskins, in need of a starter at the quarterback position with Alex Smith’s unfortunate and gruesome leg injury this past year, were apparently close to acquiring Flacco before the Broncos did.

"“One team that was in on Flacco other than Denver: Washington. Given the price, both in the mid-round draft pick and a middling starting-quarterback contract, it makes sense, as Washington works through an uncertain future at the position.”Albert Breer, MMQB"

Breer also implies by saying that Washington was just ‘one team’ being in on Flacco that there were probably others.

The Broncos only gave up a fourth-round pick to get Flacco, but they did have to give up their own and not the Texans’ pick, which could mean they had to outbid other teams trying to trade for the former Ravens starter.

As against this idea as I have been–and this post is not going to get deleted because I’m only cautiously optimistic–the more I think about this trade and the more I dig into Flacco the less I hate it.

The Broncos have a chance this offseason to invest heavily in a quarterback, but the Flacco trade has effectively prevented them from making a knee-jerk decision.

Look at the situation of the Buffalo Bills. They moved around so many different pieces of their roster from starting quarterback Tyrod Taylor to starting left tackle Cordy Glenn and moved so many draft picks before ultimately getting up high enough just to take Josh Allen.

Now, the Bills are fully committed to Allen for the future and that will prevent them from taking someone in this year’s draft and likely will prevent them from taking someone in next year’s draft and probably the year after.

If Allen shows even minimal signs of progress, the Bills will gladly pass over other options that may end up being better just because they are under the illusion they’ve got ‘their guy’.

Allen could turn out to be great and validate the Bills’ prior decisions that ultimately led to his being drafted, but he could also turn out to be really bad and the Bills will have passed on a number of other great prospects in the process.

Look at what happened to the Broncos from 2016-18. They drafted Paxton Lynch in round one of the 2016 NFL Draft, preventing them from taking anyone in 2017. That year, Mitch Trubisky, Patrick Mahomes, and DeShaun Watson were all available.

We’d take any of those three guys over Lynch, obviously.

The point is, drafting quarterbacks is never an exact science, but the more you invest in them, the less likely you are to be willing to upgrade at that position when an upgrade is available.

Flacco is the ideal solution for the Broncos in that regard, as they can cut him at any point in time with no dead money and move on to a young player or keep Flacco and see if that will work for a few years.