Sports
Jets’ Joe Flacco remembers days he was wide-eyed youngster
He may be approaching his 38th birthday and playing in his 15th NFL season, and he has a good bit of gray stubble protruding from his training camp beard to confirm his age, but Joe Flacco remembers the days when he was a young player trying to find his way, awed by the presence of some venerable veterans in the locker room.
Flacco remembers, as a rookie in Baltimore, the first time he set eyes on linebacker Ray Lewis and safety Ed Reed — both of whom have since been enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
“I’ll never forget the first time Ray Lewis said something to me, or the first time I touched his shoulder, dapping him up or something, and it was like the hardest surface I’ve ever touched in my life,’’ Flacco said Friday after the Jets’ combined session with the Falcons in Florham Park. “They were unbelievable and the best to ever do it at their positions.’’
Those players didn’t seem real to Flacco, because he’d been spending his Sundays watching them on television.
Now, Flacco is one of those guys.
Despite the standout career he has carved out en route to spending the twilight of his career in a Jets uniform as Zach Wilson’s backup — he has won 118 games in his career (including Super Bowl XLVII) and has thrown for more than 41,000 yards — Flacco is not likely headed to the Hall of Fame.
But that doesn’t make him any less of an impressive veteran presence on this young Jets team.
Just ask second-year receiver Elijah Moore, who was an 8-year-old when Flacco was an NFL rookie.
“I watched him all my life,’’ Moore said Friday. “When he got here [last season], I was amazed that it was him. Last year before some of the games, he’s been a great enough person to share some of his stories. It’s super cool to hear.
“You hear some of the guys on the sideline saying like, ‘That’s Joe Flacco. He’s a legend.’ All of us were born in 2000, so we’re young. Man, he’s a great dude and a great player still.’’
Wilson had arthroscopic surgery on his injured right knee on Tuesday and likely will be out of action for about a month, so Flacco has been taking the first-team reps in practice.
He was, by far, the superior quarterback on the field among the Jets and Falcons players during practice Friday, looking much sharper than Atlanta starter Marcus Mariota. Flacco’s day was highlighted by a long TD completion to Moore and by a pair of two-minute drills in which he led the offense to 10 points, completing 10 of 13 passes.
Flacco will start Monday night in the Jets’ preseason game against the Falcons at MetLife Stadium. He is expected to continue starting at least into the regular-season opener, while Wilson’s knee heals.
Last week, rookie receiver Garrett Wilson raved about Flacco’s veteran presence in the way he delivers the football to the pass catchers when he said: “It’s a lot of experience there with Flacco. He does a good job of making the passes receiver-friendly. That’s the best way I can put it into words. They’re pretty easy to catch when you take something off the ball when you’re running a slant route versus an out route when there’s got to be zip on the ball.’’
On Friday, Moore mentioned Flacco’s unmistakable demeanor in the huddle.
“He’s just very calm and nonchalant,’’ Moore said. “A lot of quarterbacks are very energetic, but he’s just very controlled and calm. I feel like having him back there has some swag to it.’’
Swag isn’t likely what Flacco is after, but he’ll take it. He relishes being the old, established dude whom the youngsters look up to, because it takes him back to those days of admiring the likes of Lewis and Reed.
“I don’t know if I’d ever be looked at like Ray or Ed,’’ Flacco said. “Those guys were just next-level. I remember walking into the locker room and seeing those guys for the first time. When you see those guys, it’s different. You grow up watching them. I’m fortunate to be able to tell those stories to guys. Everybody, of course, wants to know, ‘What was Ray Lewis like? What was Ed Reed like?’
“I look back and think how fortunate I was to play with those guys.’’
There may be a time later this season or next or further down the line that some of the young players on the Jets will carry fond memories like that about Flacco.
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The NBA’s longest win streak is finally over after the Knicks suffered their first loss in nine games on Wednesday. Expect New York to start a new streak Friday against a team it dominated the last time they faced off.
The Knicks were playing like the best team in basketball during their lengthy win streak, posting the league’s best net rating (+17.3) with six double-digit victories in that eight-game run. That included a 23-point beat-down of the Bulls exactly a week ago, when New York drained 17 3s and saw three players score at least 22 points in an easy win.
Knicks vs. Bulls (7:30 p.m. Eastern) prediction: Knicks -5.5 (Caesars Sportsbook)
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That game marked the worst offensive showing of the season for Chicago (91 points), which has struggled with chemistry and spacing issues all year long. The Bulls rank dead last in 3-point attempts per game (28.8) and third-worst in offensive rebounding rate (23.6%), which leaves very few easy scoring chances for one of the NBA’s worst offenses.
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It’s the opposite story for the Knicks, who boast three legitimate shot-creators and also rank among the league leaders in points in the paint. Julius Randle (31 points) relentlessly attacked this Chicago defense in their first meeting before allowing RJ Barrett (27 points) to lead the way in the second affair — his fourth of five straight games with at least 22 points.
I don’t see this Knicks attack slowing down against one of the league’s most inconsistent defenses. And until Zach LaVine returns to his All-Star form, I’m skeptical of the Bulls’ offense showing up on Friday, too.
Knicks vs. Bulls pick: Knicks -5.5 (Caesars Sportsbook)
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After starting the season 21-4-1, it looked like the New Jersey Devils were going to run away with the Metropolitan Division as one of the very best teams in the NHL.
Not only were the Devils cruising, but their underlying metrics were elite. New Jersey was the best 5-on-5 team through the first quarter of the season.
Three weeks and one six-game losing streak later, and the Devils have fallen back to earth and are now two points behind the Carolina Hurricanes in the Metropolitan Division.
The Devils were able to get off the schneid with a win over Florida on Wednesday, but the task doesn’t get any easier with the league-leading Boston Bruins in town.
New Jersey is a slight +102 home underdog against Boston starting at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN+ and the NHL Network.
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Bruins vs. Devils prediction
Even though the Devils have struggled to get results over their last 10 contests, their underlying numbers don’t suggest there’s all that much wrong with how they’re playing. New Jersey isn’t posting the pace-setting numbers it did through Thanksgiving, but it’s still skating to the fifth-best expected goals rate and high-danger scoring chance rate in the league over its last 10 contests.
Those numbers should help ease any sense of panic that New Jersey could continue to fall back further into the pack as we head toward the New Year.
So if New Jersey is still tilting the ice in the right direction, what is the issue for the Devils?
For one thing, the Devs are struggling to find the back of the net like they did when they were rolling. New Jersey has scored just nine goals in its last five games, and four of those tallies came in a 4-2 victory over Florida on Wednesday. Over their last 10 games, the Devils rank 25th in the NHL with a 6.56% shooting percentage.
Additionally, the Devils are not getting the goaltending needed to stabilize them. New Jersey’s netminders were always thought to be the team’s biggest weakness, and that has started to show lately as the Devils rank 23rd in the NHL in 5-on-5 save percentage over the last 10 games.
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The Bruins, meanwhile, continue to roll. Boston is 7-1-2 over its last 10 contests and ranks third in the league over that span in expected goals rate and fourth in high-danger chance percentage. The Bruins pace the NHL with a +54 goal differential, which is 25 goals better than the team in second (Toronto).
But as impressive as Boston has been over its first 31 games of the season, the Bruins are playing on a back-to-back on Friday, while the Devils were off on Thursday night.
The Bruins are the better team in a vacuum, but this is a good buy-low spot on the Devils, who are still playing solid hockey but are just not getting the results.
Devils vs. Bruins pick
New Jersey Devils +102 (FanDuel)
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