Joe Flacco Reacted To Being Signed To Browns Active Roster
Rest easy Browns fans, Joe Flacco can't be plucked off the practice squad by another team anymore.
On Thursday the franchise officially announced they were signing Flacco to a one-year deal to join the active roster, after spending nearly a month on the practice squad. Being signed by a different team wasn't even an option for the 16-year vet.
"No. At least, not that I'm aware of," Flacco said regarding if he received any calls from other teams. "I wouldn't have went though anyway. It's been great here."
The deal is incentives laced, including bonuses for winning a wild card game, a divisional round playoff game, the AFC Championship and the Super Bowl according to reports.
A deep playoff run like that would turn Flacco a Cleveland legend, although he's not far off already during what's been a whirlwind of an initiation to the team.
In two starts, he's thrown for 565 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. More importantly though, he's orchestrated a 1-1 record thus far while commanding the offense, and has the franchise holding firm as the fifth seed in the AFC, if the playoffs started today.
His presence suddenly has brought some stability to the quarterback position that has seen four different signal callers take snaps this year. Every step of the way, Flacco has expressed nothing but gratitude to play the game he loves after being unsigned for the first 11 weeks of the season. The Super Bowl 47 champion kept a similar perspective upon joining the active roster – the money frankly doesn't matter to him, so much so he doesn't even know how much he's been making as a member of the practice squad.
"Listen, I'm not aware of any of that [financial] stuff," he said. "I kind of leave it up to Joe, my agent, and he brushes over it with me real quick and I come up and sign it.
"I haven't looked at my bank account. I don't even know if I've gotten a check yet."
Flacco's "live in the moment" approach to this situation is fitting. There's no telling how much longer he'll have the opportunity to play football. 38 might as well be 78 by NFL standards.
On top of his NFL career being in it's final stages though, the Browns simply won't have a role for him to start in 2024. That job belongs to franchise QB Deshaun Watson, who is out for the remainder of the season with a fractured glenoid in his throwing shoulder. It's that injury that treggered Flacco's signing in the first place.
Despite that fact, he didn't close the door on a potential return this offseason.
"I mean, who knows," Flacco asked regarding his future in Cleveland. "I'm just taking it day by day still and trying to go out there and do my best on Sundays."
He may not know what his future holds, but one thing he knows for sure is that he still wants to be playing football next year.
"I know I want to play, the former Ravens QB said. Yeah. Me not wanting to play is not in question."
Whether or not the Browns would have Flacco back is a discussion for another day. For now, he' just enjoying the ride and frankly, so are Browns fans.
