Cleveland Browns fans probably shouldn’t count on Joe Flacco returning in 2024.
Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com provided an update on Flacco’s status this week, saying that the veteran quarterback wants a chance to start next season and will be looking to see if a team is willing to pay the $8 million that Jacoby Brissett received from the Washington Commanders last year.
Cabot does add the caveat that if Flacco can’t find that type of opportunity on the open market, he would gladly return to the Browns.
Flacco signed to Cleveland’s practice squad in late November this past year and was then pressed into starting duty in December.
He went 4-1 in his five regular-season starts, throwing for 1,616 yards, 13 touchdowns and eight interceptions while completing 60.3 percent of his passes and posting a passer rating of 90.2. His efforts earned him the Comeback Player of the Year award, and most importantly, he led the Browns to the playoffs.
However, Flacco’s magic ran out in the postseason, as he threw a couple of pick-sixes in the midst of Cleveland getting routed by the Houston Texans in the Wild Card Round.
Flacco’s poor playoff performance ended any chance of a quarterback controversy in Cleveland. Not there was ever a real possibility that Flacco was going to start over Deshaun Watson in 2024, anyway.
The 39-year-old should certainly have his fair share of suitors this offseason, but whether or not any team would actually give him a starting job remains to be seen.
One thing is for sure, though: Flacco is a very capable backup, and there may be a club out there willing to pay him handsomely for it.
The problem for the Browns is that they are $7.7 million over the salary cap, and that is after the cap spike. We’ll see if they decide that Joe Flacco is actually worth paying a sizeable chunk of change to man a backup role.
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