Lloyd: Joe Flacco finds love again in Cleveland

CLEVELAND – Before Joe Flacco ever threw his first pass in a Browns jersey, tight ends coach TC McCartney tried to warn them.

No one knew what to expect from a 38-year-old quarterback who looked like his best days in football were a decade and three teams ago, but McCartney still believed in it. He spent the 2019 season as Flacco’s quarterbacks coach in Denver and knew the old man could still run it.

Flacco then walked onto the practice field to lead the scout team and quickly scored a touchdown against the Browns’ leading defense. Then he did it again. And again. And again.

Depending on who you ask, Flacco tore up defenses for five or six scout team-leading touchdowns. Or maybe there were seven or eight. Flacco’s short time leading the scout team is already legendary, as is the rest of his six weeks here. It immediately caught the attention of everyone in the building.

The Cleveland Browns are heading back to the playoffs because they defeated the Jets 37-20 on Thursday night and because Joe Flacco is the best story in the NFL this year. He is the comeback player of the year. He’s Cleveland’s Man of the Year. If he stayed long enough, he could run for office and have a domed stadium built here too.

Flacco was great against his old team on Thursday, cooking the Jets for 296 yards and three touchdowns in the first half. He stands in the pocket and shoots darts like the all-time quarterback in a schoolyard pickup game.

The Browns were without leading receiver Amari Cooper. They lost No. 2 threat Elijah Moore to a possible concussion. Flacco just keeps spinning. He has turned David Njoku into an elite tight end over the past month.

He has now played five games in a Browns uniform and already ranks 33rd on the team’s career list. They have had 37 quarterbacks since returning to the league in 1999. By the way, he’s ranked 18th among those guys, and he’s within 59 yards of passing Browns legend Johnny Manziel.

He’s been here six weeks.

is this real life? 🥹

“Rome makes them look funny there pic.twitter.com/OAlQSNv2t4

— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) December 29, 2023

He has now surpassed 300 yards in four straight games, the first time that has ever happened in his career. After the match I walked through the dressing room in a daze looking for an attacking player who could explain all this to me as if I were a third division player. How does this man, at this age, come off the bench after years of not playing well and put up numbers like this?

I got a lot of blank stares and shrugs in return. No one knows how to properly describe this, because there is no logical explanation for it. Aaron Rodgers won the league’s MVP award at age 38, but he had already been elite for more than a decade. Tom Brady threw for 4,700 yards in his age-38 season, but he is the greatest of all time and played at an elite level until his mid-40s.

Flacco’s last great season was 2014. His last good year was 2017. He was irrelevant and at times terrible during his three seasons in New York. Now this.

His 13 touchdown passes already equal or exceed the total of five NFL teams this season: the Jets, Steelers, Titans, Panthers and Giants. His 13 touchdown passes equal the career total of Steelers’ Kenny Pickett. It puts Flacco at 22nd on the Browns’ career list — one behind Deshaun Watson, actually.

Flacco is doing things that shouldn’t be done by 38-year-olds who were on the bench six weeks ago. So I had to ask him.

When Cincinnati quarterback Jake Browning came off the bench to unexpectedly throw for 300 yards after Joe Burrow fell, he posted on Instagram that the league had tagged him for a drug test. It’s all supposed to be random, but it’s also become a bit of a punchline in the competition: do something unusual long enough and the random seems to find you somehow.

So as Flacco sat at his locker late Thursday night and started to take off his uniform, I asked him if the league had tested him for drugs yet. He burst into tears.

Normally these tests for PEDs and street drugs are performed on all players during training camp, but since he wasn’t in camp with any team and didn’t sign until sometime in November, Flacco said he was tested for PEDs and other drugs as soon as possible. drugs. as he signed with the Browns. He has not been flagged by the league since.

“I’m sure it will,” he laughed.

Flacco’s best season in Baltimore came with Gary Kubiak as his offensive coordinator, and Kubiak spent a season with Kevin Stefanski in Minnesota. But Flacco and Stefanski were never really in a relationship before six weeks ago.

When Watson went down with a broken shoulder, the Browns needed another quarterback. They thought Flacco was the best of the remaining veterans, so they brought him in for a workout and paired him with some receivers he had never thrown to before. The Browns’ coaches and executives were immediately fascinated by his arm strength. McCartney was right. The old man could still spin it. They didn’t bother working on anyone else. They had their man.

Unfortunately, Manziel’s place in Browns history may be secure.

The Browns still have a chance to win their division if Baltimore loses and a few more things break in Cleveland’s path. But if the Ravens win in Miami on Sunday, they will clinch the division and the Browns will have nothing left to play for Week 18 in Cincinnati. It makes a lot of sense to rest Flacco and several other veterans like Cooper and Joel Bitonio who could use the time off.

Cleveland fans are celebrating after the Browns defeated the New York Jets on Thursday night to clinch a spot in the playoffs. (Ken Blaze/USA Today)

If this is the case for Flacco’s regular season, it’s the kind of tear that may never be duplicated again. He breathed life into a franchise and a city that looked dispirited when Watson’s season ended. How could the Browns compete with a rookie quarterback in Dorian Thompson-Robinson and a washed-up veteran that no one else wanted in the league?

This is how. The sold-out crowd serenaded their new quarterback all night with chants of “FLAAAAACCO, FLAAAAACCO.” This city, forever a Browns city, is fascinated by a team that never gives up and the quarterback they never knew they needed.

After the game, Flacco lingered on the field with his children, all dressed in his jersey, standing next to him. He smiled and chatted with fans, many of whom have been waiting their entire lives for this. The stadium was mostly empty when the Browns went to the playoffs in 2020. Before that, their last playoff season was 2002.

Baltimore will always have Joe Flacco’s heart, but Cleveland is proving to everyone that he can find love again. The feeling is mutual.

(Top photo: Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)