BEREA, Ohio — From spring to summer, there were plenty of storylines surrounding the quarterback situation in Cleveland. Those storylines have shaped and evolved over the past few months and led to veteran Joe Flacco reclaiming his role as QB1 for the Browns.
Now, entering year 18, he feels ready to go, even though the journey to get here wasn't necessarily what he expected.
When Flacco joined the Browns, the room consisted of him and Kenny Pickett. Then, the Browns drafted two rookies, Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders, filling the quarterback room. The Browns approached the offseason and wanted to see what they had in all four players, which meant limited reps across the board, but Flacco eventually secured the starting title.
“Yeah, Joe’s done a nice job, Mary Kay (Cabot). I would go back to how we structured the offseason, how we structured training camp, named him the starter going into that (Los Angeles) Rams week. And he’s gotten all of the work since then with those ones to sharpen up his game, get comfortable with the guys around him. So, he’s done a really nice job to date.”
It wasn't always easy for Flacco to share so many reps across the board. While he took the majority of the first-team reps for the majority of the offseason and training camp, he still shared them with both Pickett and Gabriel. While many camps see small breaks between reps, when the rotation is as deep as the Browns' was, those breaks become longer.
The Browns found ways to minimize that, splitting the fields in half and having the veterans on one side and rookies on the other, but that wasn't always possible, so the gaps in reps were, many times, inevitable.
"There's so many things about every training camp and every situation that you're in that aren't necessarily ideal, but that's not necessarily what's ideal for the team. I think the best thing for this team was to kind of have the process that we had," Flacco said.
While Flacco would have loved to have more reps, as he has said before, he understands the reality of the situation and believes that it was the correct route for the Browns to take during their journey to find their starter for the 2025 season.
"Even though I may personally not feel like that was the best thing for myself, I can get on board and see how that was important for the team to go through this process. So, therefore, I'm willing to, and I have been willing to, play that role and go through that process and just be the best version of myself I can be. And now heading into the season, like I said, I think it was the best process for this team to go through that," Flacco said.
The process led the Browns to name Flacco the starter, Gabriel the backup, and Sanders QB3.
There have been a few weeks in between the official announcement of the quarterback depth decision and a number of practices held with that in mind. Flacco feels confident about the time he's had to prepare for Week 1 against the Bengals.
"I feel like there was plenty of time for me to make sure that I got the reps and felt comfortable with all the guys around me," Flacco said.
As he continues that preparation ahead of Sunday's game, he also has the confidence of his team that he can be a part of what the Browns hope is a turnaround season from last year's disappointing 3-14 finish.
"A veteran quarterback that knows the game with football, that's still got a lot left in the tank. Knows where to put the ball for receivers to make plays, understands coverages, understanding how receivers like the ball placed, knowing where to go with the ball," wide receiver Jerry Jeudy said in praise of Flacco.
That confidence goes for both sides of the ball.
"I think we could be special. I think we could be special, but I don't try to look too far ahead, try to take it a day at a time. Like I said, a game at a time, always. But I think we can be special. We got all the pieces and got the players and the want-to and we just got to go make it happen," said cornerback Denzel Ward.
