At 40 years old, Joe Flacco is by far the elder statesman in the Cleveland Browns' quarterback room.
Flacco, though, reiterated that he is not looking to take a back seat and mentor the team's young passers but rather to lead by example in an attempt to win the quarterback competition, Daniel Oyefusi of ESPN reports.
"It's not really about that. It's just not the main focus," Flacco said Wednesday after the Browns' second OTA practice. "I see myself as a guy that can play in this league. So, if your main focus was just like, hey, but I'm going to get you ready, you're just not taking care of business. The best way to be a mentor, honestly, is to show people how you go to work and, like I said, hope that they pick up on that stuff, but not necessarily force them to pick up on the things that you do."
Flacco is one of four healthy quarterbacks, along with 2020 first-round pick Kenny Pickett and rookies Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders, who are vying for the Browns' starting job. Deshaun Watson remains sidelined by a right Achilles injury that the team has said will cost him a significant portion of the 2025 season.
In April, Flacco signed a one-year deal worth $4 million to return to Cleveland, where he won the NFL's Comeback Player of the Year award in 2023 and helped lead the Browns to the playoffs after being signed late in the season. Flacco spent the 2024 season with the Indianapolis Colts and went 2-4 as a starter.
"Joe physically has been gifted with the ability to throw the football. He looks the same to me," coach Kevin Stefanski said. "... It's just fun having some veterans in that room, some young guys in the quarterback room. They really feed off of each other. And certainly, Joe has a lot to explain to the guys or a lot of wisdom to impart on those guys of things that have come up in his career."
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