CLEVELAND — Earlier than Joe Flacco ever threw his first go in a Browns jersey, tight ends coach T.C. McCartney tried warning them.
No one knew what to anticipate from a 38-year-old quarterback who regarded like his finest days in soccer had been 10 years and three groups in the past, however McCartney nonetheless believed. He spent the 2019 season as Flacco’s quarterbacks coach in Denver and knew the outdated man might nonetheless spin it.
Then Flacco walked onto the observe discipline to run the scout staff and shortly scored a landing towards the Browns’ league-leading protection. Then he did it once more. And once more. And once more.
Relying on who you ask, Flacco tore up the protection for 5 or 6 touchdowns working the scout staff. Or perhaps it was seven or eight. Flacco’s transient time working the scout staff is already legendary, similar to the remainder of his six weeks right here. It instantly received the eye of everybody within the constructing.
The Cleveland Browns are going again to the playoffs as a result of they beat the Jets 37-20 Thursday night time and since Joe Flacco is one of the best story within the NFL this yr. He’s the Comeback Participant of the 12 months. He’s Cleveland’s Man of the 12 months. He might run for workplace and get a dome stadium constructed right here, too, if he caught round lengthy sufficient.
GO DEEPER
Browns clinch playoff berth as Flacco dominates Jets
Flacco was marvelous Thursday towards his outdated staff, cooking the Jets for 296 yards and three touchdowns within the first half. He stands within the pocket and rips darts just like the all-time quarterback in a schoolyard pickup recreation.
The Browns had been with out main receiver Amari Cooper. They misplaced No. 2 risk Elijah Moore to a potential concussion. Flacco simply retains spinning it. He’s turned David Njoku into an elite tight finish over the previous month.
He has performed 5 video games now in a Browns uniform and he already ranks thirty third on the staff’s profession passing record. They’ve had 37 quarterbacks since returning to the league in 1999. He ranks 18th out of these guys, by the best way, and he’s inside 59 yards of passing Browns legend Johnny Manziel.
He’s been right here six weeks.
is that this actual life? 🥹
‘Rome making them look foolish on the market pic.twitter.com/OAlQSNv2t4
— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) December 29, 2023
He has surpassed 300 yards now in 4 consecutive video games, the primary time in his profession that’s ever occurred. I walked across the locker room in a daze after the sport looking for an offensive participant to elucidate all of this to me like I’m a third-grader. How is that this man, at this age, coming off his sofa after not taking part in properly for years and placing up these sorts of numbers?
I received again quite a lot of clean stares and shoulder shrugs. Nobody is aware of how you can correctly describe this as a result of there isn’t a logical rationalization. Aaron Rodgers gained the league’s MVP award at 38 however he had been elite for greater than a decade. Tom Brady threw for 4,700 yards in his age-38 season however he’s the best of all time and performed at an elite stage into his mid-40s.
Flacco’s final nice season was 2014. His final good yr was 2017. He was irrelevant and at occasions dreadful throughout his three seasons in New York. Now this.
His 13 landing passes already equal or exceed the full for 5 NFL groups this season — the Jets, Steelers, Titans, Panthers and Giants. His 13 landing passes equal the Steelers’ Kenny Pickett’s profession whole. It ranks Flacco twenty second on the Browns’ profession record — one behind Deshaun Watson, really.
Flacco is doing issues that aren’t purported to be accomplished by 38-year-olds who had been sitting on the sofa six weeks in the past. So I needed to ask him.
When Cincinnati quarterback Jake Browning got here off the bench to unexpectedly throw for 300 yards after Joe Burrow went down, he posted on Instagram that the league tagged him for a drug check. It’s all purported to be random, however it’s additionally develop into a little bit of a punchline across the league: Do one thing out of the peculiar for lengthy sufficient and the random in some way appears to seek out you.
In order Flacco sat at his locker and commenced to strip off his uniform late Thursday night time, I requested him if the league had drug-tested him but. He cracked up.
Normally, these exams for PEDs and road medicine are accomplished to all gamers throughout coaching camp, however since he wasn’t in camp with any staff and didn’t signal anyplace till November, Flacco mentioned he was examined for PEDs and different medicine as quickly as he signed with the Browns. He hasn’t gotten flagged by the league since.
“I’m positive it’ll be coming,” he laughed.
Flacco’s finest season in Baltimore got here with Gary Kubiak as his offensive coordinator, and Kubiak spent a season with Kevin Stefanski in Minnesota. However Flacco and Stefanski by no means actually had a relationship earlier than six weeks in the past.
When Watson went down with a damaged shoulder, the Browns wanted one other quarterback. They thought Flacco was one of the best of the veterans remaining so that they introduced him in for a exercise and paired him with some receivers he’d by no means thrown to earlier than. Instantly, the Browns’ coaches and execs had been mesmerized by his arm energy. McCartney was proper. The outdated man might nonetheless spin it. They didn’t hassle understanding anybody else. That they had their man.
Sadly, Manziel’s spot in Browns historical past may be secure.
The Browns nonetheless have an opportunity to win their division if Baltimore loses out and some extra issues break Cleveland’s manner. But when the Ravens win at Miami on Sunday, they’ll clinch the division and the Browns could have nothing left to play for Week 18 at Cincinnati. It makes quite a lot of sense to relaxation Flacco and several other different veterans equivalent to Cooper and Joel Bitonio, who might use the day off.
Cleveland followers rejoice after the Browns defeated the New York Jets on Thursday night time to clinch a playoff berth. (Ken Blaze / USA At the moment)
If that is it for Flacco’s common season, it’s the kind of tear which will by no means be duplicated. He breathed life right into a franchise and metropolis that regarded despondent when Watson’s season ended. How might the Browns compete with a rookie quarterback in Dorian Thompson-Robinson and a washed-up veteran who no one else within the league needed?
That is how. The sold-out crowd serenaded their new quarterback to chants of “FLAAAAACCO, FLAAAAACCO” all through the night time. This metropolis, without end a Browns city, has been captivated by a staff that by no means quits and the quarterback they by no means knew they wanted.
After the sport, Flacco lingered on the sphere along with his youngsters, all wearing his jersey, standing by his facet. He smiled and chatted with followers, lots of whom have waited their complete lives for this. The stadium was principally vacant when the Browns went to the playoffs in 2020. Previous to that, their final playoff season was 2002.
Baltimore will all the time have Joe Flacco’s coronary heart, however Cleveland is proving to everybody he can discover love once more. The sensation is mutual.
(High picture: Gregory Shamus / Getty Photographs)