Former Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco returned to his old stomping grounds this offseason.
Not Baltimore, but instead northeastern Ohio as he recently signed a one-year deal with the Cleveland Browns, the team he won Comeback Player of the Year with in 2023. At 40 years old, Flacco has a legitimate chance to be the Browns' starter as Deshaun Watson could miss the entire season due to injury.
Will Flacco actually start, though? The only other healthy quarterback on the roster is Kenny Pickett, so there's not a ton of competition there. However, it's very possible the Browns could take a rookie quarterback in next week's NFL Draft, either at number two overall or later on. If it's the former, that player could potentially push Flacco for the starting job.
Right now, though, Flacco isn't too concerned about his status as the Browns' starter.
"I don't think there's any expectation of exactly who's going to be the starting quarterback," Flacco said during an appearance on ESPN Cleveland. "So, you know, I'm excited to get in that room and go show that I have a lot of football ahead of me and kind of become part of the team and do my best to prove all those things — just like you always would when you kind of come into a new situation and want to be the guy."
Flacco spent last season with the Indianapolis Colts, with him and Anthony Richardson going back and forth as the team's starter. In eight games, including six starts, he completed 65.3 percent of his passes for 1,761 yards, 12 touchdowns and seven interceptions.
His experience with the Browns should give him the edge in the quarterback competition, but for him, the more good quarterbacks there are in the locker room, the better.
"I do think competition in that quarterback room, in general, kind of breeds the environment to learn and become the best version of yourself," Flacco said.
The 2008 first-round pick spent 11 years in Baltimore, leading the Ravens to their second Super Bowl in 2012 after an incredible playoff run. After he lost his starting job to Lamar Jackson in 2018, however, he bounced around the league for years as a backup. It was only when he went to Cleveland for the first time — after spending several months unsigned, as a reminder — that his career found new life.
Now, he hopes for another jolt in his return to Cleveland.
"I love football," Flacco said. "I still feel like I can do it at a high level. ... I don't have regrets in my life. This is one of those things, like, if I still feel like I can do it and somebody else still feels like I can do it enough to [give me] a chance, well, this probably would be something I would regret not doing. And then also, I have five kids at home and I've got to get away from them, you know, a little bit."
