Browns Rumors: Joe Flacco to Sign Practice Squad Contract After Deshaun Watson Injury

Veteran quarterback Joe Flacco is reportedly signing with a former longtime rival.

According to ESPN's Adam Schefter, Flacco has signed with the Cleveland Browns practice squad in the wake of the season-ending injury to Deshaun Watson. There's an expectation that Flacco will be elevated to the active roster to provide the Browns with some added quarterback depth.

The 38-year-old spent the first 11 years of his career with the Baltimore Ravens, winning a Super Bowl in 2012. But with Lamar Jackson emerging as the future of the position in Baltimore in 2018, Flacco was traded to the Denver Broncos ahead of the 2019 season.

Flacco appeared in eight games for Denver, throwing for 1,822 yards, six touchdowns and five interceptions, completing 65.3 percent of his passes. The Broncos went 2-6 in his starts and turned the reins over to Drew Lock.

So the Delaware product found himself on the free-agent market, signing a one-year, $1.5 million deal to serve as Sam Darnold's backup with the New York Jets before the 2020 season. He made five appearances, throwing for 864 yards, six touchdowns and three interceptions.

The Eagles brought him aboard ahead of the 2021 season, though he was traded back to the Jets in October with Zach Wilson out of action because of injury. He returned in 2022 and opened the season as the team's starter while Wilson dealt with another knock.

He threw for 1,051 yards, five touchdowns and three interceptions last season, completing 57.6 percent of his passes. The Jets went just 1-3 in his starts.

He went unsigned in the offseason, though Flacco told ESPN's Jamison Hensley in early September that he was eying a return:

"Listen, I can still play. That's me talking, obviously. I'm hoping that there's the silver lining that I'm not anywhere right now and that I can be available to anybody. I'm not saying it's going to be the truth, but if I was tied up with somebody as a backup and just didn't play at all when all of a sudden three guys go down, well, I'd probably be in the back of my head be thinking, 'Oh, man, would I have had an opportunity to go there?'"

"So I do think that at the point that my career is in, it is a positive thing in a lot of ways that I'm not anywhere right now, because if somebody does need somebody, at least I'm available."

Cleveland needed someone. Enter Flacco.

It's hard to imagine many things weirder than seeing Flacco, a former Raven, in a Browns' uniform this season.

But when Watson was lost for the season, Cleveland was left with just journeyman veteran P.J. Walker and rookie Dorian Thompson-Robinson at quarterback. The Browns have an elite defense and squandering a potential playoff year wasn't an option. So the Browns clearly had enough doubts about Walker and Thompson-Robinson to give Flacco a shot.

It will be weird seeing him in Cleveland. But desperate times call for desperate measures.