Joe Flacco's time in Cleveland may be done after his poor performance in Cleveland's 45-14 loss to the Texans. If this is the last time we see Flacco in the Orange and Brown, what is next in that quarterback room?
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00:00 Let's talk Joe Flacco for a second.
00:01 Final numbers, 34-46, 3-07, a touchdown on the shovel pass,
00:07 and two interceptions, both of which
00:08 were returned for touchdowns.
00:11 Quarterback rating of 80.6.
00:13 You see a guy throw for 300 yards in the playoffs,
00:16 and on a day where it felt like Cleveland could only
00:18 move the ball through the air, those numbers aren't terrible.
00:22 But they were bad in the wrong ways.
00:25 You can't have interceptions returned for touchdowns.
00:28 Obviously, the second interception
00:31 was particularly bad.
00:35 I think Cleveland had a lot of fun with Joe Flacco
00:39 these last couple of months.
00:41 And in my opinion, Joe certainly proved
00:44 that he's not going to start next year sitting
00:46 on his couch at home, because nobody's going to call him
00:48 and see if he can still do it.
00:51 But part of the problem Cleveland
00:52 ran into all season long, whether it
00:54 was Joe or anybody else, they led the NFL in giveaways.
00:58 Pretty banged up as the season moved along.
01:00 And I think ultimately today, it just
01:02 all snowballed in those specific aspects,
01:06 and they couldn't overcome it.
01:08 You want to break it down and even get even more minute
01:10 than that.
01:10 The Browns were trailing by 10 points.
01:12 Two-score game, they were across the 50-yard line going
01:16 into score.
01:17 And Joe Flacco got hung up with a guy on his back
01:19 trying to throw it away.
01:20 He talked about it in his postgame presser.
01:22 He should have just thrown it at the feet of the guy
01:24 in front of Elijah Moore.
01:26 He was trying to get out of bounds.
01:27 He was unable to do so.
01:28 The result, an 82-yard interception return
01:31 that goes from, let's pretend they get three more yards or 10
01:33 more yards and kick a field goal.
01:35 It goes from a one-score game to a three-score game.
01:37 And that was kind of the coffin.
01:39 That was the nail in the coffin.
01:40 And they come back the next drive, throw that pick six.
01:43 My numbers may--
01:44 I think I'm 95% sure they're right,
01:45 but Browns will finish the year with 39 giveaways,
01:48 which is insane, which is insane.
01:51 Insane.
01:52 That's 2 and 1/2 a game.
01:53 It's just you're not winning--
01:55 How did they even win 11 games?
01:56 How do you win 11 games?
01:58 With four quarterbacks, five quarterbacks, 39 giveaways.
02:01 It's just like, how do you even do that?
02:03 And we kept saying it all year long.
02:05 Don't turn it over.
02:06 Don't turn it over.
02:07 Well, they were able to get away with it against the Jacksonville
02:10 Jaguars and the Chicago Bears and some other teams in there.
02:13 But in the playoffs, when you're facing one of the 14 best teams
02:16 left in the NFL, you turn the ball over,
02:18 you lose the football game.
02:19 And that's just as simple as it gets.
02:21 And they did it today, and it came back
02:22 to bite them in the worst way.
02:26 I have to think Joe Flacco is not
02:28 going to be back with the Browns next year.
02:31 You never really rule anything out.
02:33 But I think it is extremely unlikely
02:38 that he's back in Cleveland.
02:39 And for everybody that wants to have this Watson versus Flacco
02:43 debate, I just don't think that's even reasonable.
02:46 Unless something unforeseen and drastic changes,
02:51 you've got a quarterback on your roster
02:52 that you owe $68 million to each of the next three years.
02:56 And you've got Joe Flacco, who is about to turn 39 years old
03:00 and could certainly still play.
03:02 But he's probably going to command a dollar amount
03:05 that you're not going to pay a backup quarterback
03:07 to, considering what you're giving your starting
03:09 quarterback.
03:10 And when Deshaun's healthy--
03:12 I know we've seen some ups and downs from him.
03:14 I don't want this to be a Deshaun Watson-focused show.
03:18 You are-- you're committed to that guy.
03:21 You've paid a lot of money to him.
03:22 And so you've got to find a way to make it work.
03:24 And I think maybe this team will find out
03:26 that they grew a lot through some unbelievable adversity
03:30 this year.
03:30 And this is going to sting.
03:32 But I don't think--
03:35 there's no quarterback controversy here, in my opinion.
03:37 Deshaun Watson's going to be your quarterback next year.
03:40 And so it's a disappointing way to say--
03:42 most likely-- to say goodbye to Joe Flacco,
03:45 because he poured his heart into this team.
03:48 He made it very clear how much he liked being here
03:51 and how much he loved playing for this city.
03:53 And it just didn't end the way they wanted it to.
03:55 Yeah, I don't think I'm unique in this feeling.
03:57 But the disappointment, obviously, is in the loss.
04:00 But it's also just a disappointment
04:02 with how much fun we were having.
04:04 This past month was awesome.
04:06 It was-- hands down, it was awesome.
04:08 We were thrown for 300 yards a game.
04:10 Flacco had never even done that in his career.
04:11 He threw for four straight 300-yard games.
04:13 And we were doing this crazy stuff
04:15 and scoring a bunch of points, throwing the ball
04:16 over the field.
04:17 And it was fun to watch.
04:18 And like you said, you think that you're happy for Joe.
04:21 He's going to be on a team next year for sure.
04:23 But it's like we were talking about this today.
04:26 It was like, maybe this is a good situation for him.
04:29 Maybe not ours specifically, but one where it's like, hey,
04:32 we're not going to require you to play 20 games or 15 or 17
04:34 games or whatever it may be.
04:36 Hey, let's be a backup.
04:37 Be a backup to a guy.
04:38 And if something happens, you're ready for the stretch run.
04:41 Because Brennan, he was fantastic
04:44 these last couple of weeks.
04:45 And you don't know how a 39-year-old--
04:47 he's turned 39 on Tuesday.
04:49 But you don't know how a 39-year-old's going
04:51 to hold up in the NFL over a course of an entire year.
04:54 But when he's called upon, that dude can still sling it.
04:56 And truthfully, like you said, this
05:00 is going to sting and hurt.
05:01 But this last month and a half has been awesome.
05:03 It's been so much fun.
05:04 Yeah, it has.
05:05 And I certainly anticipate there's
05:08 a bright future for this team.