UPDATE (4:58 p.m.): Per ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, Flacco isn’t expected to sign with the Browns today. Since he wouldn’t be involved in the game plan this week, both sides can decide and assess what the best plan is going forward in the coming days.
UPDATE: While Rapoport implied multiple quarterbacks were working out for the Browns, ESPN’s Jake Trotter clarified that Flacco is the only quarterback Cleveland is bringing in for a workout.
The original story is below:
Former Baltimore Ravens QB Joe Flacco could be making a return to the AFC North. Flacco, who spent 2008-18 with the Ravens before stints with the Denver Broncos and the New York Jets, is working out with a group of quarterbacks for the Cleveland Browns today, per NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport.
In his press conference earlier this week, Browns general manager Andrew Berry said the team would look to add a quarterback behind rookie Dorian Thompson-Robinson and P.J. Walker. Flacco would be a veteran option who can help lead and be a good veteran presence in the locker room.
He’s won a Super Bowl and started for three different organizations around the league, so he’s a player who could definitely add some experience to a room that’s now lacking it with Deshaun Watson out for the season due to shoulder surgery. The downside of adding Flacco is that he just hasn’t been all that good since leaving Baltimore. In 17 starts between Denver and New York, he’s gone just 3-14, although the talent around him hasn’t been solid. In 20 games and 17 starts, he’s thrown for 4,075 yards with 20 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. He just hasn’t been able to find a way to win.
But he was always a solid quarterback with Baltimore, and the expectation with Cleveland isn’t that he’d see the field immediately, if at all. But the 38-year-old has some veteran savvy and could potentially be able to be an option at quarterback as a steady presence with Cleveland’s elite defense on the other side.
If signed, it would be a return to the NFL for Flacco, who’s been out of the league since playing in five games for the Jets last year.
We’ll likely find out later today what other quarterbacks Cleveland is working out alongside Flacco. No one who they work out today, a Friday before a Sunday game, will be a remote consideration to play against the Steelers on Sunday if signed, but it could have an impact on the AFC North race. The divisional race is currently jam-packed between the Steelers, Ravens and Browns, who all have three losses at this point in the season.
With the Ravens beating the Bengals on Thursday Night Football in Week 11, they’ll gain a leg up on one of the Steelers or Browns, whoever loses in Sunday’s matchup. The loss of Watson lowered Cleveland’s chances of winning the division, but the team has a lot of confidence in Thompson-Robinson, and adding a reliable third quarterback could strengthen the room down the stretch.
