Browns quarterback Kenny Pickett recently said he plans to win the starting job in Cleveland. Earlier today, Browns quarterback Joe Flacco opted not to express similar confidence.
“I don’t think there’s any expectation of exactly who’s gonna be the starting quarterback,” Flacco said in an appearance on ESPN Cleveland. “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 wanna be the guy.”
Why does he still want to be the guy, after all these years and everything he has accomplished in the NFL?
“I love football,” Flacco said. “I still feel like I can do it at a high level. And . . . 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 be a chance, well, this probably would be something I would regret not doing. And then also, I have five kids at home and I’ve got to get away from them, you know, a little bit.”
Flacco laughed at the end. And he has said it before.
The reality is that Flacco truly loves football, enough to be a backup if that’s how it shakes out.
How will it shake out between Pickett and Flacco? We’ll find out eventually. But Flacco has plenty of built-in equity with the fans, given his arrival and performance late in the 2023 — a performance strong enough to vault him past Damar Hamlin for the Comeback Player of the Year award.
