Getty Joe Flacco was named a potential replacement for Pittsburgh Steelers QB Mason Rudolph
The Pittsburgh Steelers could turn to a very familiar face as their backup quarterback for the 2024 season. Joe Flacco was named a potential option to replace Mason Rudolph.
“You know who the name is that could replace Mason Rudolph to compete with Kenny Pickett?” CBS Sports’ Zach Gelb said on February 19 episode of “The Zach Gelb Show.” “And now watch, the guy is going to be floating around all the AFC North teams. It could actually be Joe Flacco.”
Flacco has spent 12 of this 16 seasons in the NFL playing for the Baltimore Ravens, who drafted him in 2008, and the Cleveland Browns, who used him as starter for their final five regular-season games and their wild-card loss.
How Joe Flacco Would Fit With the Steelers
Flacco probably isn’t the name that Steelers fans are hoping to see behind Pickett on the depth chart.
But it’s an idea that should make sense to Flacco given Pickett’s unreliability and flaws, Gelb said.
“If you’re Joe, wouldn’t you go to Pittsburgh?” Gelb said. “You’re probably, right now, a better quarterback than Kenny Pickett, even with the age difference. And you just bank that Kenny will be starter for Day 1, and ultimately he will fail. He will struggle.”
Flacco, though, has interception issues that could make him a bad fit in first-year offensive coordinator Arthur Smith’s offense. In just five regular-season games for the Browns, Flacco threw 8 interceptions for a career-worst 3.9% interception rate.
Given his age and six-game sample size, it’s difficult to gauge how much Flacco has in the tank. He said, however, he is not done playing football.
“I’m not riding off into any sunset,” he said, according to a February 13 story by Cleveland.com’s Mary Kat Cabot. “It’s not my style. I don’t care how ugly it gets, I want to be playing until maybe it does get ugly. I want to be dragged off that field.”
Flacco’s experience could help him mentor Pickett, and his familiarity with the AFC North could help him if he needed to step in as starter.
As a backup option, he would come cheaply. He made $2.5 million last season. But younger free agent options include Ryan Tannehill and Gardner Minshew.
Comeback Player of the Year
Flacco was one of the NFL’s best stories in 2023, entering the season as a free agent after playing the previous two seasons with the New York Jets, where he went 1-4 as a starter and completed just 57.6% of his passes in 2022.
That didn’t stop the Browns from bringing him in after Deshaun Watson suffered a season ending injury.
Very few expected what came next.
Flacco and the Browns did surprisingly well together. The team went 4-1 with Flacco as their starter. He threw for 1,616 yards and 13 touchdowns in those five starts and the Browns ended up locking up a playoff spot before Week 18.
They fell short in the playoffs, getting blown out by the Houston Texans in the AFC wild-card round as Flacco threw a couple of interceptions.
Still, that didn’t take away from Flacco’s surprisingly dependable play after many thought his career was over at 38 years old. He ended up winning the 2023 Comeback Player of the Year award and may have resurrected his career.