BEREA — Joe Flacco emerging as the Browns’ Week 1 starting quarterback is a resounding win for Cleveland’s locker room, even though it’s not ideal for the franchise’s long-range planning.
For established veterans on the roster, like Joel Bitonio, Myles Garrett, Denzel Ward, Jack Conklin, Wyatt Teller, David Njoku, Jerry Jeudy and Grant Delpit, among others, an outbreak of Flacco Fever in Browns headquarters is great news.
The reason is simple. During Cleveland’s offseason program and training camp, Flacco has consistently performed as if he possesses the best chance of the quarterbacks on the depth chart to help the team win now and, more importantly, in the regular-season opener Sept. 7 against the Cincinnati Bengals.
Yet, Flacco winning the starting QB job is not the best outcome for the big-picture strategy on which general manager Andrew Berry and the rest of the Browns front office must heavily focus.
The reason for this is also simple. Flacco will turn 41 on Jan. 16 and doesn’t represent a long-term solution at the sport’s most crucial position.
Winning matters, of course, as Berry and coach Kevin Stefanski try to maintain job security. At the same time, no one expects the Browns to make the playoffs in 2025. There are varying degrees to NFL teams rebuilding, and Cleveland falls somewhere on the spectrum coming off a 3-14 clunker. Next year and beyond is a significant part of the equation, especially for an organization with two 2026 first-round draft picks.
Will the Browns keep four quarterbacks?
For now, Kenny Pickett and rookies Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders are the theoretical lottery tickets the Browns have at quarterback. A brutal six-game stretch to begin the upcoming season (five of the opponents were 2024 playoff teams) would make starting a rookie out of the gate inadvisable.
Because Pickett has a mixture of experience (he’s 15-10 as an NFL starter) and youth (he’s 27), it would have been logical for the Browns to install him as their No. 1 QB with an eye toward the future.
Berry traded QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson and a 2025 fifth-round draft choice to the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles in exchange for Pickett. The deal occurred in March, almost exactly one month before the Browns reunited with Flacco via the signing of a one-year contract. The allure of Pickett is the potential for the former Pittsburgh Steelers first-round draft pick to become a successful reclamation project, like Sam Darnold, Geno Smith or, ahem, Baker Mayfield.
Cleveland Browns quarterback injuries
However, Pickett suffered a hamstring injury July 26 during the fourth practice of training camp. He returned as a limited participant Aug. 1 but sat out 11-on-11 drills until Aug. 19, the same day the Browns named Flacco the starter. Stefanski said Pickett won’t play in the preseason finale Aug. 23 against the Los Angeles Rams.
With Pickett sidelined for much of training camp, Flacco continued to flourish and became the undisputed best Week 1 option in what the Browns had billed as a four-quarterback competition. Injuries also interfered with the bids of third-round pick Gabriel (hamstring) and fifth-round selection Sanders (oblique), though the truth is the Browns set up the QB derby to give one of the two veterans the initial starting nod.
A seven-time Pro Bowl left guard, Bitonio has been around long enough to realize the locker room and front office can have conflicting priorities, so he is pleased with the decision regarding Flacco, a Super Bowl MVP and champion with the 2012 Baltimore Ravens.
“If one of these rookies was clearly, clearly the best guy, I would want to go with that guy,” Bitonio told the Beacon Journal on Aug. 20. “Right now, I think Joe’s had the best camp, and in the meeting room — there’s a lot of things that Twitter GMs don’t get to see. I think all in all, Joe has been the guy, especially with Kenny’s hamstring.
“For someone to be like, ‘Hey, we’ve got to find out what we have [in a rookie],’ and not put our best option out there to try and compete, I think in the NFL people go from first to worst and worst to first all the time. You have to give the guys a chance. And if we’re in Week 12 and it’s a different story, then, yeah, you understand making some decisions in that sense. But I think going into Week 1, we roll with the guy that gives us our best chance to win.”
Will Browns rookies Dillon Gabriel, Shedeur Sanders play?
Owner Jimmy Haslam declared July 29 it’s “absolutely” important for the Browns to see their rookie quarterbacks play before the organization goes on the clock in next year’s draft. Based on performances in practices and the preseason, Sanders, 23, deserves a shot before Gabriel, 24. The Browns likely order them differently because of draft statuses, but Berry and Co. ought to swallow their pride and adjust.
As for Pickett, the Browns should keep him on the 53-man roster along with the rookies. The team’s goal should be for a veteran — or a combination of veterans — to serve as a bridge to Sanders and/or Gabriel for a minimum of six games. Pickett would provide more buffer in the event of Flacco suffering an early season injury or catching a dreaded case of the turnover bug (he hasn’t exactly been immune).
Nevertheless, it’s easy to sell the locker room on Flacco because he led the Browns on a four-game winning streak in December 2023 and into the playoffs. He has a calming presence in the huddle and can still make incredible throws, as evidenced by some of the arm angles and off-balance passing he has demonstrated this offseason.
Flacco had a lackluster 2024 season with the Indianapolis Colts, going 2-4 with 12 touchdown passes, seven interceptions and 90.5 rating, but his Browns teammates still detect some 2023 magic in him.
“I do, and I think he does, too, and that’s more important than anything,” said Garrett, a six-time Pro Bowl defensive end. “He’s excited to go out there and show it. He’s cool as can be, and he’s ready for the moment.”
Flacco is the right starting quarterback for the Browns … at least for now.
The Browns basically backed into the decision because of Pickett’s injury, but team brass also deserves credit for resisting the temptation to drag the QB derby down to the wire in the hope of Pickett rallying.
As training camp unfolded, Flacco in Week 1 made too much sense to ignore.
Nate Ulrich is the sports columnist of the Akron Beacon Journal and a sports features writer. Nate can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com. On Twitter: @ByNateUlrich.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Joe Flacco becoming Browns starting QB in Week 1 is win for Cleveland locker room | Ulrich
Reporting by Nate Ulrich, Akron Beacon Journal / Akron Beacon Journal
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