Bruce Arians agrees with Mike Tomlin, shreds Browns for trading Joe Flacco to Bengals

Bruce Arians agrees with Mike Tomlin, shreds Browns for trading Joe Flacco to Bengals originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin took a rare dig at another team when he was critical of the Cleveland Browns trading Joe Flacco to the Cincinnati Bengals.

Tomlin's contention, of course, is that the Browns helped a divisional opponent with the trade. While that's debatable considering Flacco has not been good this season, the trade did give a struggling Bengals team at least some hope at quarterback amid Cincinnati's struggles in Joe Burrow's absence.

“Andrew Berry must be a lot smarter than me or us because it doesn’t make sense to me to trade a QB you think enough of to make your opening-day starter to a division opponent that’s hurting in that area. But that’s just my personal feeling," Tomlin said on Monday.

One of Tomlin's former assistants and former Arizona Cardinals and Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians agrees with Tomlin.

He absolutely shredded Browns general manager Andrew Berry for making the rare in-division trade with the Bengals during an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show Tuesday.

"That's total b*******," Arians said of the trade. "What are you thinking? First of all, Pittsburgh's your big rival. Cincinnati is your next biggest rival. Why would you trade [Flacco] to Cincinnati? If I'm going to trade him, I might get a sixth-round pick from somewhere else. I ain't going to trade him in the division.

"All of a sudden, Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins have 20 targets. Ja'Marr Chase has 10 receptions, almost 100 yards in one week. Couldn't get the damn ball to him the other three weeks and now Pittsburgh has to play them on Thursday night," Arians added.

"[Tomlin] does not want to see Joe and those receivers. He's like, "s***, we had them right where we wanted them and they go and trade this guy to our division rivals? It makes no sense to me."

Truth be told, getting worked up over this trade is a bit silly.

Again, Flacco is nowhere near guaranteed to save the Bengals' season, and it's not like the Browns traded away a franchise cornerstone that will help Cincinnati for years to come.

Besides, it's not like the Browns were competing for the division title, anyway, with the team sitting at 1-5 and going nowhere fast.

Getting anything for Flacco, who was unlikely to be back next season, is a win, no matter who Cleveland got the return from.

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