Joe Flacco is heading back to Cleveland.
On Friday, the veteran NFL quarterback agreed to a one-year contract with the Browns. In 2023, Flacco led an inspiring late-season surge that propelled the Browns into the playoffs and earned him the title of Comeback Player of the Year in the league. Last season in Indianapolis, Flacco, 40, threw for 12 touchdowns and seven interceptions in eight games, including two starts. Deshaun Watson could miss the entire season as he recovers from a ruptured Achilles tendon in January, just three months after he first injured the tendon against Cincinnati. This puts the Browns’ quarterback situation in flux. Cleveland acquired former Pittsburgh Steelers first-round pick Kenny Pickett in a trade with Philadelphia. Pickett started one game last season for the Eagles while backing up Jalen Hurts. He started both of his Steelers seasons and finished 14-10. The well-traveled Flacco has bounced around since his prime in Baltimore in the 2010s, a stretch in which he led the Ravens to a Super Bowl. He spent three seasons with the New York Jets, Cleveland, Indianapolis, and Denver Broncos. Now it’s back to the Browns, who made the somewhat curious decision not to re-sign him after he went 4-1 as a starter in 2023 and averaged more than 300 yards passing per game. Instead, they decided to stick with the troublesome Watson, a move that has repeatedly backfired since they traded him to Houston for a slew of first-round picks and then signed him to a huge contract that looks like one of the worst in NFL history. Recently, Cleveland owner Jimmy Haslam acknowledged that the team took a significant swing for Watson but badly missed. “We’ve got to dig ourselves out of that hole,” Haslam said in March.
The Browns hold the second overall pick in the NFL draft in two weeks following a disastrous 3-14 season. While there may be a couple of high-profile quarterbacks available in what is considered a quarterback-light draft, there’s a good chance Cleveland sees what they have in Pickett and decides to add talent elsewhere on the roster.
