Joe Flacco: “I’m Open to Being Back in With Browns”

We aren’t even a week removed from the Browns tough, Wild Card loss to Houston last weekend but fans are already looking ahead to 2024.

Cleveland miraculously made it to the NFL Playoffs despite suffering an incredible amount of adversity thanks to injuries. The reason for their 11-6 record and Playoff birth was the play of now 39-year-old Joe Flacco down the home stretch of December.

Flacco used to dominate Cleveland in his time with Baltimore and was an enemy of this town until he dawned the Orange and Brown himself over the last couple months. Now fans want to see him him stay longer.

The 16-year veteran kept the door open on a return to Cleveland on the Pardon My Take Podcast this week.

In six games for Cleveland, Flacco was nothing short of spectacular. He was 4-2 and his stats were gaudy, finishing with 1,923 yards, 14 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. In five of his six games, he threw for over 300 yards as well.

If you stretch those numbers out across a 17-game schedule, Flacco and the Browns would have likely been an 11 or 12-win team and Flacco would have thrown for 39 touchdowns, 5,384 yards and (look away) 28 interceptions.

Yes, this is just a small sample size but it’s impossible to ignore the fact that Flacco was throwing the ball at an elite level.

Cleveland finds itself in an interesting predicament. From a financial perspective, there is no discussion as to who their QB is next season. Deshaun Watson isn’t going anywhere.

Still, if he were to get inured having Flacco waiting in the wings may not be a bad idea. Browns general manager Andrew Berry and company have their work cut out for them as they make a tough decision about Flacco’s future. If it’s possible for the two to co-exist the perhaps they’ll consider bringing him back to the lakefront.

Flacco’s future will be decided over the course of the next few months, but for now, the organisation at least knows he’s open to a reunion.