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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.”
Brandon Allen will start. Either Drew Lock or Brett Rypien will be activated and play backup. #9sports
— Mike Klis (@MikeKlis) October 28, 2019
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.
Vic Fangio: “Joe's not going to play this week. He’s got a disk or neck injury and he’ll definitely miss this week. Then we’ll reevaluated after the bye and see where he’s at.”
— Nicki Jhabvala (@NickiJhabvala) October 28, 2019
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.
Broncos’ QB Joe Flacco has a herniated disk in his neck, per @Jeff_Legwold. Flacco is out this week vs. Cleveland and then he will he re-evaluated after the bye. At that time, IR would be a possibility if he hasn’t recovered.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) October 28, 2019
Does this help or hurt the Broncos chances next week?