QB Joe Flacco (4.23.25)
Do you recognize the place?
“For the most part. A couple, nice new additions. The weight room’s not in the indoor end zone anymore, so that’s nice.”
Just in general, how does it feel to be back here and kind of pick up maybe where you left off?
“Yeah, it feels nice. Listen, I think it’s always nice when you’re in this league and you get to go to a team and be on a team, but to see familiar faces and a lot of guys that we did some cool things with is always refreshing.”
Joe, was that why you were attracted to come back this year or were there other reasons to decide this up?
“I think obviously, you look at the past and there’s something that makes you feel good about it, but it mostly just comes down to the people. Not necessarily like the results that we had last time, but the guys in the locker room, having some familiarity with them is definitely a big, big part of it.”
How difficult is it to avoid kind of the comparisons, you know, to that, that month or so?
“I think it’ll just be natural to kind of make those comparisons, but I think the biggest thing is just kind of putting your head down, going to work and doing the best you can now. And I think all that stuff will kind of be left in the past.”
Joe, last week you said you were looking forward to when some of your teammates see you. What was their reaction?
“It was what you would expect. You walk into a building where you know guys and it seems familiar. I saw Ethan (Pocic) as I was kind of walking down the meeting room hallway and we just kind of smiled at each other and it felt good, felt natural.”
Can you address the notion of competing with at least now Kenny Pickett for the starting job and then whoever else they bring in as the rookie QB?
“Yeah, I think it’s exciting. I mean, that’s all you can ask for in this league. I don’t really have any expectations besides to go out there, be myself and kind of put my head down, work hard, and of just do things the way I know how to. And the exciting part about it this time around is that I get to be a part of the team from the get-go and kind of make those relationships even better than they are. And I think there’s a lot of fun in that.”
So just thinking about like the last time you were here and now being more than a year removed from it, like, is it just crazy to think about where you became kind of this like cult hero amongst Browns fans?
“It’s definitely a little. You wouldn’t anticipate it. I think it just says a little bit about this town and their hunger for some winning football and what it can be like when you get to that point.”
I think you’ve been through it before with AR (Anthony Richardson) last year. What did you learn about managing that?
“Yeah, I think, and you probably do learn some things and most of all you learn that it’s always going to be tough to kind of come in in those situations. You have to get really good at ignoring the outside stuff and kind of getting this preconceived idea in your head about how it’s going to go. You just never know. And I think when you start to try to think about and guess how things may go, it affects your play as opposed to just trying to always ignore all that stuff and be as ready as you can in any situation. It’s not going to be ideal. I think that’s the biggest thing that you can learn from it is, you’re never probably going to feel quite as prepared as you want to feel when you have to go in the game in certain situations. But you just kind of have to realize that that’s how it’s how it’s going to be and react. And eventually when you get in there in some of those situations, it kind of comes back to you a little bit. Like, fortunately for myself, I’ve played a lot of football, so I think you can kind of fall back on that.”
Joe, at what point did you feel like a return to Cleveland was actually going to mature?
“If you asked me two weeks before it actually happened, I would have said no way. It’s funny, I drove up to North Jersey, I was playing golf with a couple buddies and I didn’t even have Cleveland on my mind. And by the end of that night I did. And I didn’t have my phone on me all day. I didn’t see my phone until probably 8:30-9:00. And in that, in that probably 10 hour window, things changed a little bit. And that’s why I kind of joked to my, to my family a little bit like My agent was talking to me about the places I may end up, and I kind of joked about it, that whatever he’s saying right now, it’s probably going to be whatever is the opposite of that. Just because you never know. You never know how the talks materialize and all those things happen. And I think I’ve learned over the last few years to not really get my hopes going one way or the other until something actually happens, because it’s kind of unpredictable in that way.”
Joe, when you were here before you would say things like, I feel like a kid again. Do you feel like you still have the same energy?
“Of course, yeah. I think that was a little bit of a unique situation just because I did have it fresh in my mind that I was on the couch like two weeks before I was actually playing in a game here. I do think that was a little bit unique. But there’s always reminders about how cool it is to be able to play in this league, and I try to keep those kind of in the front of my mind and give myself those weekly reminders about, how fortunate I am to be able to do this. And I think that that’s the best mindset to kind of have in order to play your best football. It naturally allows you to ignore the outside noise and just kind of be in your own little world and go out there and do what you love to do.”
Joe, how do you. How do you view kind of that mentorship role with a young quarterback? Has it evolved since Baltimore?
“Listen, it’s such a weird question to ask, and you kind of get in trouble no matter how you answer it. I don’t think anybody ever really views themselves as a mentor, solely as a mentor. I think we all want to go out there and compete and play. I think if you’re in the quarterback room for a day or two, you can probably understand that things like that naturally come up. I’ve played a lot of football, and I have a lot of different experiences, and there’s a certain way that I see it, and there’s a certain way I can talk about footwork and reads and those things, and I think they naturally come up. And I think when you’re just have a competitive, good quarterback room, you don’t really have to worry about being a mentor. You just kind of do you. You compete and you have fun and conversations come up and everybody learns from it. And I’m not immune to that either. Like, I still have things to learn, and you can get somebody else’s perspective on maybe one, one or two plays here or there, and it can help how you read it, and it can help how quickly you diagnose things with that specific play. So I think everybody kind of plays off of each other in that room.”
What were you told about your opportunity here?
“We didn’t talk much about that. It kind of developed into what it was and, the situation here with who we have on the roster and what they’re likely to do in the draft. We didn’t really talk too much about that. I’m just excited to be here and, you know, the possibility, the opportunity.”
Were you specifically told that you would have an opportunity to compete to start?
“No, Kevin kind of just said, listen, we have no preconceived notions of who’s going to be the starting quarterback. We want to put together a good room and have good competition and see what comes of it.”
What will the offense look like?
Yesterday was just like a lot of logistical things and kind of getting everybody into town, and today we just kind of got started. So for me to kind of be able to give you a map of what we’re going to do this year, it’d be very hard. But I think you guys can probably put it together just as much as I can at this point.”
Have you watched Travis Hunter?
“I haven’t. I haven’t. I’ve talked about him a little bit, just because obviously people are interested in him. I think he’s obviously really athletic, and he has all the physical tools. I think the thing that would excite me about him is the fact that he plays both ways. And what does that say? I don’t know. The thing that it says to me is that he’s more than just an athlete. He’s a football player. He understands space and he understands how to play the game, and I think sometimes in this league, those things get overlooked. So for me, you always need good football players. The athleticism is obviously a plus, but for me, the fact that he’s able to do multiple things on a field would be a sign at least that he has the ability. He is a football player, and I think that’s always the most important thing.”
How interested are you to see who the Browns might take at quarterback if who, where, and do you think about how that might affect you?
“I’m obviously not that interested. I won’t be paying attention. I’ll probably get updates from friends or family on who we picked. Yeah, I haven’t paid attention to the Draft in the last probably 14 or 15 years. I’ll wait to see who it is and say what’s up to them in the locker room when they show up in Cleveland.”
Joe, I saw you at the (Cleveland) Guardians game last night. The kids got to meet Slider and some cute photos and stuff like that. And I was also this morning reading Jarrett Allen’s essay in The Players Tribune about how this is kind of a special place and people from the outside might not realize that until you’re actually here. So my question is, first of all, how did the kids feel about this? And then why is this kind of a special place to be?
“Yeah, listen. I mean, from my vantage point, it has been a special place. I don’t know if everybody can say that, but it seems like it. It’s a town that reacts to the sports. And I’m kind of from the Northeast, and I feel like the more west you go, that passion and maybe it’s a little bit different, maybe it’s shown in a little bit different way, but I feel like this kind of city still kind of aligns with the ideals of kind of that Northeast mindset and things like that. They’re tough people that care about their sports and kind of care about people in general and just want to see the place where they’re from do well. So, I think it is a special place because of that. And the family’s excited about it. You know, they were definitely happy to see that they were playing Aaron Judge as well. That kind of added to going the game, to go watch him. And it was kind of a win, win. We end up winning 3-2, and Aaron Judge goes 4-for 4-and doesn’t really do any damage. So, it was a cool game to go to.”
Why do you think you lasted this long?
“I’ve gotten that question – players ask a lot. You know, ‘why are you still doing this?’ And what eventually came to me is, I want to. I want to play. I think it’s easy to. It’d be easy to say, ‘all right, I’ve done enough,’ but I made a decision that I’m going to do this. And I feel like once I made that decision, in my mind, then I didn’t give myself an out, and I want to play, and I’m going to play until I can’t.”
How have you changed, like staying prepared for the season, you know, getting ready for it? How much has that changed as you have gotten older?
“I have probably made little tweaks here and there, like, throughout the course of my career as I’ve gotten older, but, like, the main thing has stayed like the main thing. I’ve had my trainer for the last 15 years, and we get after it and keep it simple and not trying to reinvent the wheel, but, you know, just staying strong, staying fresh. And I think the biggest thing when you get to this age is just kind of the mental side of it and not getting worn out with the daily kind of monotony. So, you just kind of have to keep that fresh. And I think, you know, the best way to do that is just kind of have good relationships and develop those relationships as much. And that kind of keeps everything fresh and exciting.”
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