Joe Flacco chats with the media on December 13, 2023. The Browns take on the Bears this week at home.
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00:00 Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday that I had been doing.
00:03 Cuz I hadn't gotten a call to that point, just hadn't, you know what I'm saying?
00:06 Like, to now to look back and say, okay, I didn't come out here until Friday to
00:11 work out, stuff like that.
00:12 I don't know, it's tough to explain just the difference.
00:15 I really wasn't thinking much of it, so.
00:17 >> [INAUDIBLE]
00:27 >> No, I think in your mind,
00:32 you gotta take it week to week anyway.
00:39 And so really, nothing else changed.
00:46 We still wanna go out there and have a good week worth of work.
00:50 And that's really what it all comes down to.
00:53 >> [INAUDIBLE]
00:57 >> Always a little strange to watch
00:59 games, but what else are you really doing on Sundays?
01:01 Usually do a few things in the morning with kids.
01:04 I watched a good bulk of the one o'clock games.
01:07 And then after that, I tended not to watch as many of the 4.30 or the night games.
01:13 >> What do you feel you might be doing?
01:15 >> Well, they've been creating turnovers recently, and
01:19 I think they make you kinda go the long way.
01:21 And just be patient.
01:25 >> [INAUDIBLE]
01:34 >> I really don't wanna have to ever do
01:36 that stuff.
01:37 >> [LAUGH] >> 15 years ago,
01:40 I would have told you no chance at all.
01:43 These days, I think you at least entertain the options.
01:47 But yeah, I don't know if you guys know me at all, but
01:50 that's the last thing I really wanna do with my life.
01:53 >> Did you audition?
01:54 >> Yeah, no, I went over.
01:55 Listen, they were actually doing a thing at NFL Film,
01:58 which I live 15 minutes from.
02:00 So it was a good little way to go kinda feel it out and see if it was something
02:04 that you'd be interested in doing, could get better at, whatever it may be.
02:09 It's definitely, listen, that's kinda what I mean.
02:13 Like 15 years ago, it would have been just a hard no.
02:15 But it still took some convincing for me to get over there.
02:19 But at the end of the day, it was an experience that was probably worth having.
02:22 >> Joe, I've said it, you keep doing what you're doing,
02:25 you're gonna be one of them if you're not already one of them.
02:29 How important is that to hear from?
02:31 [INAUDIBLE] >> Yeah, well, that's important.
02:35 I think I've talked about it from day one, just becoming part of the team and
02:41 wanting to prove that you deserve to be a part of the team.
02:43 So that's always important for a player.
02:45 >> What were you better at, second guess?
02:47 >> What's that?
02:48 >> What were you better at, second guess?
02:51 >> Man.
02:52 Well, I think some of the things that I talked about,
02:57 like in terms of being able to get out of the pocket when I needed to.
02:59 And just not that it was a ton, but I still think there was,
03:05 I threw a couple bad balls that I'm not used to throwing just because I don't feel
03:09 like my feet were tied in with my eyes and all that stuff.
03:11 So more just conscious of still the improvements I need to make,
03:16 as opposed to what I improved on.
03:18 >> Joey's talking.
03:19 >> Who are some of the quarterbacks that you may have heard from?
03:23 I heard Peyton say something nice about you the other day.
03:26 Have you heard from some of the quarterbacks that were your peers
03:30 throughout your career and yourself?
03:31 Can you share anything that maybe somebody can with that?
03:35 >> I've mostly heard the last few weeks of just guys that I've played with,
03:39 coaches that I've been with.
03:42 Whether it's people from Baltimore, Delaware, New York.
03:46 I think you make a lot of relationships with the people that you play with.
03:51 And that's kind of always how I've been.
03:53 Everybody always asks me, do you have a relationship with this guy or
03:56 this guy or this guy?
03:57 I mean, I'm kind of private as it is.
04:00 And I have a lot of relationships with the guys that I've played with.
04:02 But outside of that, I never really gone out of my way to
04:06 probably make a ton of those relationships.
04:09 I don't wanna be a bother.
04:10 But I've mostly, like I said, heard from the people that I've played with and
04:13 the coaches that I've had in the past and all that.
04:15 And it's been fun, obviously.
04:17 >> Joe, we've talked about how fast this all happened.
04:19 We'd have told you 89 passes in the first two weeks.
04:22 Wish you thought that was coming.
04:24 >> Listen, I've been around long enough to know that you really can't set
04:30 some kind of expectation and expect that to actually come true.
04:35 This is the NFL.
04:36 You get into these games and each game is its own thing.
04:40 And you just have to do what's meant for you, what's made for you.
04:44 And during the game, listen, when you're out there playing,
04:47 you don't even realize how many times you're dropping back.
04:49 It's just kind of part of what happens.
04:51 >> Joe, you guys have gone with T.
04:54 How has his relationship with Kevin, just like with T, handled it?
04:59 >> Yeah, listen, I think he does a great job.
05:02 And I think he deserves a lot of credit, obviously,
05:04 with the amount of variables that he's been dealing with this year.
05:08 And for me and him, it's just obviously, the more he gets a feel for
05:13 what we're good at while I'm back there, and the more we can talk in the meeting
05:18 rooms, obviously, the more I play, the more conversations,
05:21 the more easily conversations come up.
05:23 So you get a better feel for each other that way.
05:26 >> [INAUDIBLE]
05:32 >> Somebody was saying that last week.
05:35 I mean, I'm a guy with a beard.
05:37 >> [LAUGH] >> I could shave it off and
05:40 look completely different tomorrow.
05:42 So I probably should.
05:44 It's just playing into the fact that I'm an older quarterback.
05:46 If I shave this off, it'd probably take five years off.
05:48 >> Joe, Wyatt Teller was saying that down the stretch the other day,
05:51 you were kind of, I think he called you a calming voice of reason.
05:54 In the final couple of minutes, how important is that role for
05:58 you just to kind of keep everybody on task and in the moment, as we talked about?
06:03 >> I don't think it's actively who,
06:05 what I'm trying to do out there at this point.
06:08 But I hope that my personality and
06:13 my playing style can definitely bring that along with it.
06:17 And that's what a quarterback's job is, it's what a leader's job is.
06:20 So I'm glad to hear that.
06:23 And like I said, at this point in my career,
06:25 it's not like I'm super conscious of it anymore, but definitely wanna be that guy.
06:30 >> Joe, kind of off the top of the question, just about,
06:33 you've been in a lot of big situations, big moments over your career.
06:37 Now you're in the midst of a playoff push here.
06:41 How much is that experience gonna help you and how much,
06:43 what can you impart on these guys as they go, try to close this out?
06:50 >> It's always tough to quantify the experience thing and
06:53 how much it actually matters.
06:54 Because in the moment on Sunday,
06:55 it comes down to what you're doing on that individual play.
06:59 But I'm a big believer in that being in tough situations,
07:06 prepares you for the toughest of situations.
07:09 And if you're a team that deals with a lot of adversity and
07:14 plays these tight games, even though it's not exactly what you want all the time and
07:18 it's not perfect, then it definitely prepares you for
07:21 games that are going to have to be that way down the stretch.
07:24 I think early in my career, every now and
07:28 then we would beat up on a team and blow them out.
07:30 And it wouldn't be a game in the fourth quarter.
07:31 But I feel like the teams I was on back then played so
07:35 many games where it came down to the last drive, the last five minutes of the game.
07:41 And you just get used to treating them like normal situations and
07:45 not overreacting in those situations.
07:47 So I think the more that a team like this can deal with those,
07:51 then the better off we'll be.
07:53 And Sunday was kind of like that.
07:55 It was that environment.
07:59 Whatever you believe, whatever you believe that should have happened in that game or
08:02 we should have done that to that team.
08:04 It was what it was and it came down to the last couple minutes of the game.
08:07 And I think in the long run, it's one of those things that we can kind of draw from
08:12 in the end and realize that we don't have to overreact and
08:15 panic in those situations.
08:16 We can just stay true to ourselves and go play the game.
08:18 >> I know you didn't play at all with Jeff,
08:21 we'll nearly have the one game with one.
08:23 But how do you guys kind of react to deal with losing both starting tackles
08:27 within two days?
08:28 >> It's just the next man up.
08:30 You can't really think about it.
08:32 I mean, we found out late last week, I guess, that DeJuan wasn't gonna be able to
08:37 go and it's a shame.
08:38 I mean, you want your guys out there.
08:41 But like I said, everybody in here is our guy and it's just next man up mentality.
08:47 And that's what I talked about earlier.
08:49 I think you have to give a lot of credit to Kevin just for
08:52 dealing with those variables and being able to continue to go out there and
08:55 have success.
08:55 >> [INAUDIBLE]
09:05 >> Yeah, I've probably been part of
09:14 seasons where we've been injured like this.
09:16 I don't know if anywhere we've been, we're still standing eight and five.
09:20 So I think the fact that we've been able to go out there, these guys have been able
09:25 to go out there and still put together a bunch of wins has definitely helped
09:28 the mindset in terms of that.
09:30 Obviously, if it was the other way, you wouldn't be feeling as good.
09:36 But I think going out there and winning cures a lot.
09:39 >> Joe, last one.
09:40 >> What's it like for you to be able to support the guys and spread that ball
09:44 around and have moments like David Bell Jr's career touchdown?
09:47 What's it like for you to be a part of that?
09:48 >> It's a lot of fun.
09:49 After the fact, I mean, during the game,
09:51 you're just trying to throw the ball to the right guy and find the open guy.
09:54 But I don't know if you guys saw when he was running into the end zone,
09:59 the big smile he had on his face.
10:01 At the end of the day, that's really what it's all about.
10:04 It's about going out there and having fun and competing and
10:07 enjoying the process of it all.
10:08 So definitely really cool to see that.
10:11 >> Joe, can I say one more?
10:12 >> All right, thanks, guys.
10:13 >> Joe, I'm sorry.
10:15 I'm just curious, now that you're back out there,
10:17 have you given any thoughts how much longer you wanna do this?
10:19 >> Not specifically.
10:22 I don't know if I've ever, I think probably early on,
10:27 people would ask me, how long do you wanna play?
10:30 You probably say 15 years or something.
10:31 But at this point, I don't really wanna put a number on anything.
10:35 I just wanna go out there and play my best and then see where that goes.
10:39 I think I've been in enough situations now to realize that it may or
10:43 may not be up to me.
10:44 So you just gotta go out there and play and don't take anything for granted.
10:47 Thanks, Joe.
10:48 >> Thank you, Joe.