Aaron Rodgers Injury: Ravens, Jets Ex Joe Flacco Back to New York?

New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers is out for the year with a torn Achilles. Could they re-sign former Baltimore Ravens signal caller Joe Flacco?

The New York Jets are in need of a quarterback after Aaron Rodgers tore his Achilles four plays into his debut on Monday Night Football. Perhaps the Jets will turn to a familiar face ... and one that Baltimore Ravens fans will also know.

For the first time since 2007, Joe Flacco does not appear on any of the NFL's 32 rosters. Flacco, the Ravens' primary quarterback for over a decade, has spent between the Broncos, Eagles and Jets since passing over the keys to the Baltimore offense over to Jackson. 

He started four games with the Jets last season, 1,051 yards, five touchdowns, and three interceptions. 

Speaking with ESPN's Jamison Hensley earlier this month, Flacco is searching for a "silver lining" of lacking an opening day roster spot.

"Listen, I can still play," Flacco said. "That's me talking, obviously. I'm hoping that there's the silver lining that I'm not anywhere right now and that I can be available to anybody. I'm not saying it's going to be the truth, but if I was tied up with somebody as a backup and just didn't play at all when all of a sudden three guys go down, well, I'd probably be in the back of my head be thinking, 'Oh, man, would I have had an opportunity to go there?'"

"So I do think that at the point that my career is in, it is a positive thing in a lot of ways that I'm not anywhere right now, because if somebody does need somebody, at least I'm available."

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Flacco, 38, certainly might have a point: last season, only eight quarterbacks started all 17 games last season and there were 68 total starters last year. The San Francisco 49ers famously made it all the way to the NFC title game with their third starter, final 2022 NFL Draft pick Brock Purdy ... and then needed to use running back Christian McCaffrey when both Mr. Irrelevant and his back up (and current Raven) Josh Johnson were each injured against the Philadelphia Eagles. 

The NFL has since passed a rule allowing to dress a third emergency quarterback that may only enter if the two in front of him are lost to injury.

Flacco referred to his unemployment as "uncharted territory" and said that he continues to work out in the hope that a team will come calling. Having spent the past three seasons backing up Sam Darnold and Zach Wilson in New York, Flacco proved to be an at least somewhat reliable back up, throwing 14 touchdowns to only six interceptions and completing over 57 percent of his passes. 

"I still believe that I have all of the athletic and physical tools to do it," Flacco, holder of countless Baltimore passing records and MVP of the team's last Super Bowl triumph, said. "In terms of the quarterback and the mental part of it, I've only gotten better over the last 15 years. So I feel just as physical as I ever have. I mean, not to say that I'm not 27, 28 years old anymore. But I'm in great shape and I don't see a real drop-off."

A return to the Jets would likely have Flacco behind Wilson in the depth chart again, but it could give him a viable path towards becoming a starter in the NFL once more.