Cleveland Browns quarterback Joe Flacco has thrown 10 touchdown passes and led his team to three ... [+]
The irony is not lost on anyone, especially Joe Flacco.
Tonight in Cleveland, the quarterback that almost nobody wanted for most of the 2023 NFL season has a chance to lead the one team that did into the playoffs – by beating his former team.
You can’t make this stuff up.
Tonight, the 38-year-old Flacco, who has become an instant folk hero in Cleveland for halting the Browns’ revolving door at the quarterback position this year at four, can, for only the third time in this century, clinch a spot in the playoffs for the Browns by leading Cleveland to a win over the New York Jets – Flacco’s former team.
Prior to being ostracized for most of this season by NFL teams – even the quarterback-needy ones – Flacco had spent the previous three years with the Jets. It was with the Jets, in the second game of the 2022 season, that Flacco, with his team trailing by 13 points, threw two touchdown passes in the last 84 seconds of the game to beat the Browns 31-30.
Tonight in Cleveland, Flacco, now wearing a Browns uniform, will try to beat the team that his current team couldn’t beat a year ago. Given all the quarterback woes the Jets have had this season, it’s curious that they never called the out-of-work Flacco, who spent most of this season waiting for his phone to ring.
“There’s all kinds of things that happen throughout the course of the season and offseason,” Flacco said. “I enjoyed my time while I was there (with the Jets), and it is what it is. I’m happy to be where I am, that’s for sure.”
The Browns are happy that Flacco is happy where he is as well. In his four starts for Cleveland since being signed as a free agent on November 20, Flacco has thrown more touchdown passes (10) than the Browns’ other three quarterbacks – Deshaun Watson, Dorian Thompson-Robinson, and P.J. Walker – threw in their 11 combined starts (7).
In particular, Flacco and receiver Amari Cooper have generated instant chemistry, which has been a big factor in Cleveland’s three-game winning streak. In the Browns’ 36-22 win over Houston last Sunday, the Flacco-Cooper tandem combined for 265 of the Browns’ 364 passing yards.
Flacco, however, has consistently moved the ball around to multiple receivers in his four starts. In the Houston game, for example, Flacco completed 11 passes to Cooper, but he also completed passes to eight other receivers.
Browns coach Kevin Stefanski attributes Flacco’s smooth transition from stay-at-home Dad for most of this year to a season-saving quarterback for a team literally out of options at that position to Flacco’s experience, and feel for the game.
“I think there’s guys that with that amount of (experience) and with that amount of years in different systems, they can come in and operate pretty quickly,” Stefanski said. “Now you’ve got to be very intelligent, and you got to work like crazy to do it. And I think Joe’s done both those things. But I think there’s enough similarity to the things that we’re doing that he’s done in the past, and I think he could lean into that experience.”
Flacco’s impressive numbers, his hit-the-ground-running production, and the Browns’ current three-game winning streak suggest that Stefanski’s analysis is correct.
The Browns’ coach certainly has had plenty of experience at ramping up emergency quarterbacks, rookie quarterbacks, backup quarterbacks, $230 million quarterbacks, and, in Flacco’s case, a professional, experienced, savvy, but unemployed quarterback.
There is also something to be said for the old “right time, right place” serendipity that history tells us can sometimes lead to the big, bigger, and best moments in sports.
If nothing else, Stefanski has extensive experience working with a quarterback room filled with hopefuls at various stages of their careers. In his four years as the Browns’ coach and play-caller, Stefanski has spent time polishing, working with, and/or grooming eight different quarterbacks: Baker Mayfield, Case Keenum, Nick Mullens, Jacoby Brissett, Deshaun Watson, Dorian Thompson-Robinson, P.J. Walker, and now Joe Flacco.
But only one has joined the team on the fly, with so much at stake, both for himself and for his new team. So far, however, Flacco has been fabulous, probably because, at 38, with all his experience in the game, he gets it. He gets where he is in his career, where he hopes to go, and he is not intimidated by the stakes or the moment.
“I think when you’re in the moment, you just kind of fall back into another season, another locker room, and going out there and playing football,” he said. “When you’re on the field on Sundays and you’re playing football, you can feel like you’re at home.”
He’s a football player who gets paid to play football. He’ll leave the esoteric interpretation to others, but he clearly likes where he is.
“You think you’re coming into a good situation with a good team and there’s a possibility for this, but you never quite know,” Flacco said. “I think what I’ve probably noticed is that from the outside you think this is a pretty good situation, but when you get here, it’s an even better situation.”
Especially for a folk hero.
