Joe Flacco is heading again to Cleveland.
The veteran NFL quarterback agreed to phrases with the Browns on a one-year deal on Friday.
Flacco received the league’s Comeback Participant of the Yr award in 2023 after main an inspiring late-season surge that carried the Browns to the playoffs.
Flacco, 40, spent final season in Indianapolis, throwing for 12 touchdowns and 7 interceptions in eight video games, together with a 2-4 mark as a starter.
The Browns are in flux at quarterback with Deshaun Watson doubtlessly lacking the complete season as he recovers from a ruptured achilles tendon suffered in January, simply three months after he initially injured the tendon towards Cincinnati.
Cleveland acquired former Pittsburgh Steelers first-round decide Kenny Pickett in a commerce with Philadelphia. Pickett began one recreation final season for the Eagles whereas backing up Jalen Hurts. He was 14-10 as a starter in two years with the Steelers.
The well-traveled Flacco has bounced round since his prime in Baltimore within the 2010s, a stretch wherein he led the Ravens to a Tremendous Bowl. He spent a yr in Denver, three with the New York Jets, one in Cleveland and one in Indianapolis.
Now it’s again to the Browns, who made the considerably curious determination to not re-sign him after he went 4-1 as a starter in 2023 and averaged greater than 300 yards passing per recreation. They determined to stay with the problematic Watson as a substitute, a call that has backfired repeatedly since they despatched a bevy of first-round picks to Houston for him after which signed him to an enormous deal that appears like one of many worst in NFL historical past.
Cleveland proprietor Jimmy Haslam admitted not too long ago that the crew took an enormous swing for Watson and missed badly.
“We’ve obtained to dig ourselves out of that gap,” Haslam mentioned in March.
The Browns maintain the second general decide within the NFL draft in two weeks following a disastrous 3-14 season. Whereas there could also be a few high-profile quarterbacks accessible in what is taken into account a quarterback-light draft, there’s a great likelihood Cleveland sees what they’ve in Pickett and determine so as to add expertise elsewhere on the roster.
