Shedeur Sanders has established himself as a starting quarterback. Still, one of his former Cleveland Browns teammates who lost his job is already thinking about what he will do in the upcoming 2026 NFL season.
It’s Joe Flacco. The Super Bowl champion lost his starting job in Cleveland and was traded to the Cincinnati Bengals. While he showed glimpses of productivity, the veteran knew he was on borrowed time, as once Joe Burrow recovered, he was going to be benched.
Now, Flacco, who is 41 years old, instead of looking for retirement, is looking for a place where he can play. “I’m somebody who wants to play football. You’ve got to assess and see whatever is thrown your way. You have to go from there and see what you can do about it,” Flacco said.
The future is cloudy for Flacco
Flacco went 2-8 this season in 10 starts, completing a 60.3% of his passes and 15 touchdowns to 10 interceptions. The fact is he had plenty of good moments. However, it’s hard to find a team that would give a veteran like Flacco the opportunity to start.
A team would rather take a chance on a young buck with upside, than a veteran like Flacco who might have his days numbered in the NFL. You can see it on the Browns this year. As soon as they could, the Browns rather had Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders play over Flacco despite the results.
Flacco is a premium backup
To be fair, Flacco is a premium backup in the NFL, given that he is productive. He won’t buy much wins, but he won’t cost a team many losses. He still has an arm and he is very intelligent. His physical peak is beyond him, but he is still capable.
Best-case scenario is that a team has an open competition to be quarterback one and Flacco enters that competition. Still, it would be a bit irrational to think Flacco could just go and become QB1 without any trepidation. Flacco loves football and will compete, but the fact is that it will be an uphill battle.