Veteran Joe Flacco will be the starting quarterback when the Cleveland Browns open the regular season on Sept. 7 against the visiting Cincinnati Bengals.
Flacco, 40, was named the starter on Monday despite sitting out the Browns’ first two preseason games.
But a track record that includes 45,697 yards and 257 touchdown passes in 191 regular-season starts — along with a Super Bowl MVP award to highlight his 17 postseason starts — made for a much more accomplished resume than any of the team’s other quarterbacks.
The Browns wrap up their exhibition schedule Saturday versus the Los Angeles Rams.
“We still anticipate all of our players, whether you’re a starter or not, to prepare like you’re the starter,” Cleveland coach Kevin Stefanski said earlier Monday. “Knowing all of our players in that room, that’s exactly what they’ll do.”
Flacco has been taking the majority of the first-team reps this month on the practice field.
“We’re working towards Week 1,” Stefanski said. “That’s part of what this week is about, getting our football team ready. So, we’ll make all those types of determinations in the next couple of days.”
Flacco said recently that training camp was going smoothly for him.
“The last couple of weeks, honestly, it’s been pretty good for me,” Flacco said last Wednesday. “I’ve gotten to get more reps and get comfortable and feel like I’m doing things at a pretty high level.”
When he steps under center against the Bengals, it will mark the 18th consecutive season Flacco has started at least one NFL regular-season game. When he made his NFL debut on Sept. 7, 2008, everybody else in the Browns’ quarterback room was in elementary school.
Cleveland drafted Dillon Gabriel in the third round of the 2025 draft and selected Shedeur Sanders 50 picks later. The Browns also acquired former first-round pick Kenny Pickett from the Eagles. Pickett has been limited in training camp by a hamstring injury. Sanders, who threw two TD passes in the preseason opener, was not available for Saturday’s exhibition win over Philadelphia because of a strained oblique.
Flacco was signed off the couch to be a backup in 2023, when Stefanski said he proved “elite” arm strength in a workout one week before Thanksgiving when injuries ravaged the QB room. He wound up in the starting lineup when rookie Dorian Thompson-Robinson was placed in concussion protocol. Thompson-Robinson was only in the lineup due to an injury to Deshaun Watson, who is expected to miss the 2025 season recovering from multiple Achilles surgeries.
Flacco led the Browns to the playoffs, then was allowed to leave in free agency on a one-year deal with the Colts. He re-signed with the Browns in March.
Flacco previously played for the Baltimore Ravens (2008-18), Denver Broncos (2019) and New York Jets (2020-22). He threw 11 touchdown passes without an interception in four playoff games when the Ravens won the 2012 season Super Bowl (XLVII).
–Field Level Media
