CHARLOTTE, N.C. — In the war of attrition that the Browns four-way quarterback competition has become, 40-year-old Joe Flacco is the only one of the four who hasn’t missed a reps, a drill or a practice because of injury or soreness.
The other three, Kenny Pickett, Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders, some young enough to be Flacco’s son had he, as he sometimes says, messed up in high school, have all missed time because of one ailment or another.
Pickett and Gabriel are nursing sore hamstrings, and both were held out of team drills during the joint practice here on Wednesday. Sanders, who will start Friday night’s preseason opener here against the Panthers, was shut down on Saturday after experiencing soreness in his right throwing arm. It’s since resolved, but it made headlines for a day nonetheless.
And then there’s Flacco, the 18-year veteran with five school-age children, who hasn’t missed a snap in OTAs, mandatory minicamp, or the first 11 days of training camp. If it keeps up like this, he’ll start Week 1 against the Bengals.
“Who knows why I’m the one guy, but I think the fact that I am 40 in here is just like I’ve been fortunate with my body,” he said. “I’ve learned how to take care of it. I mean, there is part of me that wishes were doing three-hour practices because I could show that I could last through those too. It’s not that much of an accomplishment to kind of come out here and make it through a training camp, but I do feel like if we were grinding three hours, two and a half hours every day, I could still go through that too. I wish I could show that a little bit.”
Whether or not he eats avocado ice cream like Tom Brady, he has similar longevity and hasn’t come close to falling off a cliff yet in the sport.
“A lot of it is taking care of your body and learning how to do that,” he said. “You gain knowledge as you’re in the league. Throughout my football career I’ve had a couple injuries, but most of all I’ve been pretty fortunate on just what I’ve been given and the situations I’ve been given.”
With his top two challengers in the four-way battle for the job, Pickett and Gabriel, both missing crucial 11-on-11 reps for the time being, Flacco has a leg up in the competition. Sanders will start Friday night in the preseason opener here, but him beating out Flacco for the Week 1 start is still a longshot. It’s tough enough for rookies to start right away, but rookies getting less than a quarter of the reps in camp have a huge uphill battle. Sanders has yet to take a snap with the first team offense, and has only four against the Browns starting defense.
Before Pickett injured his hamstring on Day 4 of camp — following an excellent Block 1 — he and Flacco were running neck-and-neck for the starting job. Pickett returned from summer break with an increased command of the scheme and was operating with more confidence. It was time for him to start showcasing his mobility, which is his strength in the competition. But Pickett readily admits he’s losing ground, and knows it will be tough to catch up in time to overtake Flacco, who isn’t here just to pad the college fund for his five kids.
“Yeah, listen, that’s why we play the game, right?” Flacco said. “You know, we play to play. That’s what gets us all going. You do get gained perspective. And when you’re out in the grass in practice, you can remind yourself, ‘wow, this is like, cool that we’re out here,’ but the end goal is to be the guy on the field playing the football games. That’s why we all do it. That’s as simple as it gets.”
With Flacco now taking most of the first-team reps in practice, and the two others limited, is he starting to sense that he’s the guy? Pickett and Gabriel participated in 7-on-7s on Wednesday, but not 11-on-11s.
“I’m not trying to look into that too much,” he said. “When you get a little bit – it’s still not like, ‘okay, I went from three reps here, three reps there to a little bit more.’ Not like a ton more, but a little bit more. And in just that little bit, you can start to feel like yourself, get in the groove and you calm down a little bit.
“It’s just human nature. When you’re getting two reps, three reps to like, ‘oh, this has to be perfect.’ And when you feel that way, you’re not going to be as good. So to be able to relax a little bit, let it loose and get a little bit more (work), it just feels right. I’m not going to look into what it means, but it definitely feels good to be out there.”
Developing the kind of chemistry over the past few week with Jerry Jeudy that Flacco had with Amari Cooper, he’s making some explosive plays in practice. He’s also developing more of a rapport with Cedric Tillman, and rekindling his connection with David Njoku.
With Flacco at the helm on Wednesday, getting the best of the Panthers first-team defense — save for the pesky pre-snap penalties — it had the makings of an efficient offense. It’s probably time to hone in on Flacco and let him cook, but he’s trusting the process like the other three (and now four with Tyler Huntley in the house).
“I’m not worried one bit, man,” Flacco said. “I’m just out here enjoying it and doing the best I can every single day, trying to show these guys that, man, I can do it. You should have confidence in me. When I talk to my wife at night, you know, maybe she’s not as patient. But listen, I’m having a lot of fun just going out there and slamming it around a practice right now, and I’m doing a good job just kind of keeping my feet where they are, and that’s all I can do right now.”
With Pickett and Gabriel still up in the air for team drills next week in Philly, Flacco is making 40 look like the new 30, and inching closer to the starting job.
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