Browns QB Joe Flacco: There’s no ‘expectation’ on who starter will be

Joe Flacco is back with the Cleveland Browns.

After spending the 2024 season with the Indianapolis Colts, Flacco recently inked a one-year deal to reunite with the Browns, with whom he spent the 2023 season.

What will Flacco’s role be next season? Is he the starting quarterback or the backup?

“I don’t think there’s any expectation of exactly who’s going to be the starting quarterback,” Flacco said in an interview with ESPN Cleveland on Wednesday morning. “So, you know, I’m excited to get in that room and go show that I have a lot of football ahead of me and kind of become part of the team and do my best to prove all those things — just like you always would when you kind of come into a new situation and want to be the guy.”

With Deshaun Watson expected to miss the entire 2025 season due to a torn Achilles, Flacco and Kenny Pickett make up Cleveland’s quarterback room; the Browns acquired Pickett, a 2022 first-round draft pick of the Pittsburgh Steelers with 25 career NFL starts, from the Philadelphia Eagles for quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson and a fifth-round draft pick in March.

As for the 40-year-old Flacco, he made six starts and appeared in eight games total for the Colts last season. In said games, the veteran totaled 1,761 passing yards, 12 passing touchdowns, seven interceptions and a 90.5 passer rating, while completing 65.3% of his passes.

Flacco started five regular-season games for the Browns in 2023 in the wake of Watson suffering a season-ending shoulder injury earlier in the season, with the team going 4-1 with Flacco under center. Across those five games, Flacco totaled 1,616 passing yards, 13 passing touchdowns, eight interceptions and a 90.2 passer rating, while completing 60.3% of his passes and helping Cleveland earn a wild-card berth. Flacco proceeded to sign a one-year deal with the Colts in the offseason following Cleveland’s wild-card round loss to the Houston Texans.

What should the Cleveland Browns do with the No. 2 pick?

While Pickett and Flacco are presumably No. 1 and 2 on the quarterback depth chart, the Browns still have the No. 2 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, as well as the No. 33 pick. One of those two picks could potentially be used on a quarterback (Colorado‘s Shedeur Sanders at No. 2? Alabama‘s Jalen Milroe at No. 33?).

Regardless of whether the Browns take a quarterback, Flacco is bullish on 2025.

“I love football. I still feel like I can do it at a high level … I don’t have regrets in my life. This is one of those things, like, if I still feel like I can do it and somebody else still feels like I can do it enough to give me a chance, well, this probably would be something I would regret not doing,” Flacco said. “And then also, I have five kids at home, and I’ve got to get away from them, you know, a little bit.”

The Browns are coming off a 3-14 season that saw their offense finish last in the NFL in scoring (15.2 points per game) and 28th in total yards (300.8 total yards per game).

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