Joe Flacco’s latest act rubs salt in the wound of the Cleveland Browns and GM Andrew Berry

Now with the Bengals, Flacco has better weapons in Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins. Cleveland doesn’t have a wide receiver close to the level of either of those players. The Bengals still have a shaky offensive line and a questionable head coach in Zac Taylor, who calls the plays. Still, Flacco was sharp Thursday night, slinging the football all over the field against a Steelers defense that held the Browns to just nine points in their last meeting.

Trading Flacco itself wasn’t the issue. The problem is that the Browns sent him to a division rival—something you rarely see teams do. Cleveland clearly doubted that Flacco could still succeed as a starter, signaling as much by trading him away. But he proved them wrong on Thursday night. Flacco now hopes to remain the starter for the rest of the season until Joe Burrow returns, with the goal of keeping the Bengals in playoff contention. Meanwhile, Browns fans are already talking about draft positioning, which says a lot about the current state of the franchise.

Flacco will undoubtedly have his rough games with Cincinnati, but Thursday night was the opposite of that. The Browns had to watch the quarterback they deemed expendable light it up for one of their biggest rivals. Cleveland’s front office may have made a fair move on paper, but how they handled it is questionable at best. Browns fans were forced to watch Flacco deliver for the Bengals on Thursday night—and that never should have been the case.

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