Joe Flacco is helping save the Browns after the NFL ignored him
Anyone could have had Joe Flacco. At any time. Since last spring.
The 38-year-old quarterback’s rapid ascent from watching NFL games on the couch with his kids to stewarding the Cleveland Browns’ playoff hopes came to pass only after repeated overtures from his agent for months resulted in nary an invitation to work out for any team. In what has become the year of the backup quarterback, with nearly 60 men of varied résumés and accomplishments starting games this season, perhaps none of the backups is better poised to extend this narrative into the postseason than Flacco, a former Super Bowl winner now guiding the fortunes of a Browns franchise he dominated during his long run with the Baltimore Ravens.
“Nobody would listen to me,” Flacco’s agent, Joe Linta, said this week as he waited for the Browns to consummate his client’s rise from the practice squad with a proper NFL contract. “For months. You have no idea how many people I reached out to. No one wanted him.
Advertisement
“There were a handful of guys in the league who I think did want to sign him — not the head cheese of a team but guys a little bit down the line. I don’t want to get into naming any of the names, but it never happened. There were five or six guys who would have signed him sooner, but they couldn’t do it themselves, and they’d call me back and say, ‘It’s BS, but we’re not going to bring him in.’
“I really couldn’t get anyone at the top to give him a shot. When I tell you, no exaggeration, I begged [Jets General Manager] Joe Douglas to bring him in, just to take a look at him, from like April all the way through the season. I begged him. I mean, Joe played pretty well for them [in 2022], but it didn’t matter. I couldn’t get anything going. Nothing.”
Luckily for the Browns (8-5), even in a year of declining quarterback play, with injuries soaring and teams giving extended runs to former Division II projects or guys who couldn’t even throw touchdown passes at the University of Connecticut, Flacco was available and ready to play when rookie Dorian Thompson-Robinson joined starter Deshaun Watson on the injured list. Finally, there was a team willing to let Flacco — who led Baltimore to the Super Bowl title in February 2013, has more than 42,000 career passing yards and started four games for the Jets last season — come in for a workout. After a seven-hour drive to Cleveland and a brief stint on the practice squad, Flacco readied for a Week 13 debut.
Advertisement
“I do feel like I have stuff left in the tank,” he told reporters shortly after signing there, in his classic understated style.
In reality, Flacco has done nothing short of save the Browns’ season, considering they ranked 32nd in many key quarterback metrics before this latest switch. He has thrown for five touchdowns and 565 yards in his two starts. He had the Browns in position to win a road game against the upstart Rams in his first outing, trailing by one point deep into the fourth quarter, and then led a 31-point charge in a victory over a Jaguars team that was flirting with the AFC’s top record. It’s arguably the best burst of Browns quarterbacking since Brian Hoyer was throwing jump ball after jump ball to Josh Gordon.
And it has left the football world in a hokey Hallmark holiday movie of sorts, with the father of five whom nobody wanted suddenly playing for practice squad peanuts and leading a franchise whose starter has barely played despite the richest fully guaranteed contract in NFL history. It even comes with sick burns from the eldest of the Flacco brood about his dad’s occasional hiccups.
Advertisement
“My oldest son, the first thing he said was, ‘Where were you throwing that ball?’ ” Flacco quipped Wednesday during his weekly meeting with the Cleveland media. “ ‘Where were you throwing that pick?’ ”
The dad jokes write themselves sometimes. But there is nothing corny about Flacco’s play.
Always a believer in the seam shot to his tight ends, he has unlocked hulking David Njoku, who had a season-high 91 receiving yards this past Sunday and matched his season total with two touchdown catches. Wide receiver Elijah Moore, a bit player most of the season who teamed with Flacco in New York, went over 60 yards for the first time this year when Flacco took over. And teams must now respect Amari Cooper’s deep speed again, especially on play-action looks, with Flacco seemingly losing little of his arm strength and ever willing to push the ball downfield. Guess which team leads the NFL in pass attempts over the past four weeks, with 15 (!) more than any other club? Yup, Flacco’s Browns.
Advertisement
“He’s been training and putting in the work on his own; I can tell by the tape,” said longtime NFL assistant coach and executive Bobby DePaul, who has evaluated Flacco in his consulting role for SumerSports, a quantitative analysis firm specializing in football. “He’s in the right place at the right time — great defense with enough talent to be balanced on offense.
“His arm still looks the part, and he’s healthy and moving well when he has to run around. He has a very good command of that offense — being a veteran and taking what the defense is giving him and not trying to be a hero. … If he just stays within himself he’ll be fine, but he may not be able to help himself.”
DePaul, who has been evaluating quarterbacks for a generation, gave Flacco a “functional starter” grade, which might not sound like much but eliminates a good chunk of the guys under center these days. If Flacco can curtail turnovers, there is every reason to believe the Browns can hold on to a wild-card spot, although they would need a lot of help to catch the Ravens atop the AFC North and take this Hollywood script to utterly preposterous levels.
Advertisement
Speaking of which, don’t overlook a Week 17 meeting with the Jets, who have gotten mostly miserable quarterback play and who operate close to Flacco’s New Jersey home. Flacco has been demonstratively better than many quarterbacks — including all three who have attempted to replace Aaron Rodgers in New York. But you don’t get to be a Jets backup these days unless Rodgers himself gives the sign of approval, and he was apparently committed to getting paychecks for his buddy Tim Boyle, the aforementioned former U-Conn. quarterback.
New York’s loss was Cleveland’s gain, and one of those teams now has a legitimate shot at playing postseason ball. Regardless, Flacco’s story is far from over; he maintains retirement isn’t on his mind, and he’s loving the fact that some of his kids are old enough to appreciate what he does for a living, even if they bust his chops about it.
“We’ve talked about it, and this isn’t a temporary thing for him,” Linta said. “He’s going to play another year or two. He feels great; you can see he’s still more than athletic enough to move around and make plays. He’s loving this.”
Maybe it will be convincing enough to make Linta’s job a little easier finding a spot for the veteran in 2024, when the Jets will — again — need a backup quarterback.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uK3SoaCnn6Sku7G70q1lnKedZMCxu9GtqmhqYGeAcH2RaGhvZ5qksm6yy5qanKddl7%2Bww82sZKyskafBpr6O