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Joe Flacco ruled out versus Browns with neck injury

The Denver Broncos have ruled Joe Flacco out with a neck injury against the Cleveland Browns. Brandon Allen will get the start.

Denver Broncos v Indianapolis Colts Photo by Bobby Ellis/Getty Images

Denver Broncos Head Coach Vic Fangio dropped a bombshell on Monday noting that quarterback Joe Flacco would not play in Week 9 against the Cleveland Browns. Fangio said, “He’s got a neck or disk issue and he definitely will not play this week and we’ll evaluate after.”

While the team insists this is due to an injury, it is curious that he was so quickly ruled out on a Monday so soon after Flacco essentially threw Offensive Coordinator Rich Scangarello under the bus after the game on Sunday.

We can only speculate on that part, but the Broncos have already decided Flacco’s neck issue is severe enough to sit him next week and start Brandon Allen in his place. Mike Klis of 9News has already reported that Flacco will not need surgery. There is even a chance Fangio sends Flacco to IR over this injury, despite surgery not being needed.

Fangio did say they will decide whether to activate Brett Rypien off of the practice squad or bring Drew Lock off of IR to be Allen’s back up this week.

Conspiracy theories aside, Jeff Legwold has reported that Flacco has a herniated disk in his neck. If so, that is an easy call on the multi-week recovery projection.

Does this help or hurt the Broncos chances next week?