Mike Florio ,
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In Cleveland, Joe Flacco went from being the Comeback Player of the Year in 2023 to being the Don’t Come Back Player of the Year in 2024 to the Come Back For A While And Now Please Go Player of the Year in 2025.
In his first game with the Bengals on Sunday, Flacco has a chance to do something that has only been done once before — beat the same team twice in the same year while playing for two different teams.
Three weeks ago, the Browns and Flacco upset the Packers, 13-10. In Week 6, the Bengals go to Green Bay. Flacco will start.
It won’t be easy for Flacco. The Packers had two weeks to get ready for the game, and the Browns played last Sunday in London. (That’s the kind of scheduling quirk that, ideally, the league office would avoid.) And the Packers are favored by 14 points.
In 1962, quarterback Jack Kemp beat the New York Titans (now the Jets) as the starter for the Chargers and the Bills. That’s the only time a quarterback has beaten the same team twice while playing for two different teams.
Win or lose, Flacco will be only the seventh quarterback to face the same team twice with two different teams: Kemp, Jimmy Clausen in 2015, Kyle Orton in 2011, Kerry Collins in 1998, Chris Chandler in 1991, and Norm Snead in 1974.
Flacco also will have the chance to face the same team more than twice, if he continues to start for the Bengals into December. He started for the Browns against the Ravens in Week 2. And Flacco could face the Ravens two more times this year, in Week 13 and Week 15.
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