CLEVELAND, Ohio - Joe Flacco is not just a 40-year-old quarterback. He’s become a symbol of redemption for a Browns fan base desperate to move forward.
When coach Kevin Stefanski named Flacco the Browns’ starting quarterback this week, it wasn’t just another personnel decision – it was the official arrival of what might be the most unexpected feel-good story in Browns history.
“The decision to go with Joe drips of competence,” read host David Campbell during the latest Terry’s Talkin’ podcast, sharing an email from longtime listener Brian Kirkendall. “The guy just gets it. He gets us. He gets the locker room. I actually hope he comes back next year.”
Just two years ago, the former Super Bowl MVP couldn’t find work anywhere in the NFL. His agent was “begging teams” to give him a tryout, as Terry Pluto explained on the podcast.
Now, he’s the starting quarterback for the Browns, a development that Pluto sarcastically noted “everybody saw coming.”
While the Browns front office was busy “firing the coaching staff and offensive coordinator and everything else to try and revive Deshaun Watson’s career,” as Pluto said, the answer to their quarterback woes was sitting at home, waiting for a chance.
In his first run with the Browns in 2023, Flacco delivered in spectacular fashion, averaging 318 yards passing per game with 14 touchdown passes during his remarkable five-game run.
Perhaps most significantly, his presence has provided what might be called a cleansing for the fans. Browns fans can now walk into the stadium and cheer wholeheartedly without the emotional baggage of the Watson situation hanging over them.
Challenges remain, of course. At 40, Flacco isn’t the mobile quarterback who might best fit Stefanski’s offensive system. As Campbell noted on the podcast, “You’re not going to see Joe Flacco necessarily faking to the right and rolling out on a 5 second rollout to the left.” The running game remains a question mark, and the receiving corps is unproven beyond Jerry Judy.
But Flacco brings intangibles that can’t be measured.
As Pluto observed, “Joe won’t panic. I mean, he’ll be able to handle if he gets criticism. And finally... the players do believe in him, Miles and the rest of those guys. They do.”
For Pluto, Flacco’s impact transcends the normal metrics we use to evaluate players.
“He still gave me and I bet some of the fans here perhaps the most feel-good story the Browns have had since they came back in ’99,” Pluto said.
“Now they’ve had better seasons than that, but just because it came out of nowhere and it came out of the gloom of Watson and into the playoffs, and the games are fun to watch.”
In a franchise historically defined by disappointment, that might be Flacco’s greatest achievement yet – making Browns football fun again.
Here’s the podcast for this week:
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