Anyone could have had Joe Flacco. At any time. Since last spring.
The 38-year-old quarterback’s rapid ascent from watching NFL games on the couch with his kids to stewarding the Cleveland Browns’ playoff hopes came to pass only after repeated overtures from his agent for months resulted in nary an invitation to work out for any team. In what has become the year of the backup quarterback, with nearly 60 men of varied résumés and accomplishments starting games this season, perhaps none of the backups is better poised to extend this narrative into the postseason than Flacco, a former Super Bowl winner now guiding the fortunes of a Browns franchise he dominated during his long run with the Baltimore Ravens.
There were a handful of guys in the league who I think did want to sign him — not the head cheese of a team but guys a little bit down the line; I don’t want to get into naming any of the names — but it never happened. There were five or six guys who would have signed him sooner, but they couldn’t do it themselves and they’d call me back and say, ‘It’s BS but we’re not going to bring him in.’
“I really couldn’t get anyone at the top to give him a shot. When I tell you, no exaggeration, I begged [Jets general manager] Joe Douglas to bring him in, just to take a look at him, from like April all the way through the season. I begged him. I mean, Joe played pretty well for them [in 2022], but it didn’t matter. I couldn’t get anything going. Nothing.”
