The Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals pulled off a rare in-division trade when the former sent quarterback Joe Flacco to the latter.
The trade came amid the Bengals dealing with an injury to star quarterback Joe Burrow, who is expected to be out until mid-December, at least. Burrow's backup, Jake Browning, was struggling mightily, which led to the trade.
After playing the Browns in Week 6, the Pittsburgh Steelers will now face off versus Flacco and the Bengals in Week 7.
On Monday, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin revealed he was surprised that the Browns decided to trade Flacco to another AFC North team and admitted that isn't something he would ever do.
“Andrew Berry must be a lot smarter than me or us because it doesn’t make sense to me to trade a QB you think enough of to make your opening-day starter to a division opponent that’s hurting in that area. But that’s just my personal feeling," Tomlin said.
While it's always surprising to see an in-division trade, this one did make sense from both teams' standpoints.
The Bengals needed another option at quarterback amid Browning's struggles to try and save their season, and the Browns are going nowhere this season and Flacco wasn't in the team's long-term plans, so it made sense to get what they could, especially after he was benched for Dillon Gabriel.
Based on what we've seen from Flacco this season, the Steelers shouldn't be too worried about him providing a massive upgrade for Cincinnati, the team that is currently the biggest threat to Pittsburgh's AFC North hopes with the Baltimore Ravens and Browns both sitting at 1-5.
The trade doesn't figure to do much to change the outlook of the AFC North, where the Steelers are firmly in the driver's seat going into Week 7.
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