QB Joe Flacco (8.13.25)
Joe, it seemed to be more dropped passes today than we see in a normal Browns practice. What do you attribute that to?
“I guess so. I guess I can think of a couple of on top of my head. Listen, I think when you’re out there competing, you want to speed it up a little bit. That’s the natural thing. So, being in these environments and learning how to still go out and play within yourself is a learning experience. I thought today was a good day for it, not necessarily from that, but now that I think about it, that also. But the amount of reps we got today against a good football team, it was a good test for us today. It was a lot of good work.”
Do you feel like you guys will put your heads together in a meeting and resolve to play cleaner ball when you come out here against these guys tomorrow?
“Honestly, I think you do that every time you go and look at the tape as you’re trying to clean stuff up. But like I said, ultimately, you’re here to find out a little bit about yourself, and grind a little bit and have a tough day. I really do think that when we look at the film, we’re going to be able to find out a lot about what we are, and then going through that together and having a good, like I said, a good, tough, competitive practice, I think it was a good day for us.”
Did you sense a difference in intensity even from last Wednesday to this Wednesday, the one (joint practice) in Carolina?
“No, it was a little bit of a different practice setup. So, it goes a certain way a little bit like that. I think last week, we came out and did a couple of seven on sevens and a couple teams (periods), and it was kind of like, all right, boom, boom, boom. This week, we came out and had a pretty traditional training camp practice where we’re able to grind through stuff a little bit, and anytime you have those practices where you’re running 80 plays, you’re going to have some ugly and you’re going to have some good. That’s why it’s about the competition, and it’s about finding out a little bit about what we are.”
Joe (Flacco), I know you didn’t get to see your own defense today, but watching them, it looks like the guys up front got quite a bit of pressure and found some success on the other field. How formidable have they looked throughout camp?
“We’ve been going against them everyday, honestly. Listen, I think if you look at both these teams, they’ve got some really good players up front. That’s where football starts. It starts up front. So, if you can get those guys going, you have a really good shot to be a good football team. I think we’ve got one.”
What do you think you found out about yourselves today as an offense?
“I think we found out like, hey, we can push through some stuff. I think we also learned that, man, we need to learn that to a certain extent – we need to learn how to push through a little bit better and stuff like that. Ultimately it was good. I think it was a lot of good [that] came from this practice. You need to have these types of days where you come out here and grind a little bit. We were going at a pretty fast pace here, too, on our side of the field, so we were grinding. I think everybody on that field could feel that a little bit. And we want to be a team that plays with that, so that’s a positive. To be able to go out there and run that many plays in that time frame and be clean in the operation, I think that was really good. I think you could feel that on both sides of the ball, where guys…it felt like we were running a lot of plays, but it went both ways. It was a good test for us, and I think we found out that, like, hey, we got some guys that can kind of push through this when we need to.”
Joe, you’ve been in this league a long time. Obviously, you’ve seen so many different versions of training camp, joint practices, all of that. What do you feel, given your experience, you individually or the team gets out of a joint practice versus a preseason game or standard training camp practice?
“Yeah, I would say I never loved traveling and going and doing a practice against somebody else. But it’s kind of what we talked about earlier, in order to play this game at a high level, you have to be able to compete, but also not have your mind racing and get so revved up. It’s such an emotional game, right? For pretty much every position on the field, and you have to bring that (emotion) to the field. How do you play with that emotion but also be within yourselves, within the scheme and within all that, and then just concentrate on the basics of catching the football and running with the football. Like, how do you balance both of them? I think being in an environment against a different team, it gives you that experience. Then you can look back on it and say, man, why did I do this thing extra this time when I normally would have just taken four steps and caught the ball? Why did I decide to do a little bit extra to top my route? Next time I won’t do that, like you don’t need to. So, anytime you have actual competition, I think when you have guys that are willing to work through it and know that it’s not always going to be pretty, you find out a little bit about how to actually go into that competition and still relax and play.”
Obviously, this quarterback situation has been unique right from the start. The numbers (of quarterbacks) with the two drafted rookies, with you coming back, as it has played out and some of the injuries that have shifted the dynamics, how different has it felt to you, and how has it affected your preparation?
“It’s interesting. I think you can probably sit up at night and think about different ways to approach these types of things, but all I’m doing is going out there and trying to take advantage of whatever I’m doing. I’m preparing as normal, training camp as normal. Whenever I get the rep, go out there and do the best you can. Play within yourself, relax. I think it is hard when you’re only getting a couple reps here and there because it goes back to you try so hard to be perfect, and then usually you end up hurting yourself a little bit. But the last couple weeks, honestly it’s been pretty good for me. I’ve got to get more reps and get comfortable and feel like I’m doing things at a pretty high level. So, I can’t complain.”
They (Philadelphia Eagles) don’t have a competition going on. Jalen Hurts took 90% of the reps today. How does that (splitting reps) contribute to the rhythm of the offense, not just you?
“Yeah, that’s big. It’s obviously advantageous to have a guy back there 90% of the time, and you get going with everybody. You get to hear the cadence, you get to see how he operates and see how he does through tough times and good times. That’s all great, but in this league, the situation isn’t always just laid out for you perfectly. You’ve got to be able to adapt, and there’s no excuses. Once it all starts, it’s about winning football games no matter what, and that’s the way I approach it.”
The team told us that Shedeur (Sanders) suffered an oblique injury in early throwing drills. You know how tough that must be on Shedeur to have to deal with something like that, but did you have any words of encouragement for him? Did you know that was going on and what are your thoughts on it?
“Yeah, he said something about it, and I don’t know, what can I do? ‘Oh, sorry, man.’ It’s tough. We all want to be out there getting reps, but hey, that’s what training camp and football is all about. Sometimes these things happen. Sometimes you’ve got to deal with them, and it is what it is.”
Dillon’s (Gabriel) coming back from a hamstring (injury). How have you noticed him progressing as he’s gotten back into a flow of getting more team reps?
“You know, me and Dan were just laughing. You guys like to ask me about these guys and what if I just said – honestly, though, we’re in that room together and we’re all doing things together, but when it comes out in this field, I’m not super worried about what Dillon’s doing to get back from his hamstring. I’m focused on us getting better and us doing the best we can against Philly, and that includes him. You want to see him get out there and have good reps and do those things. But as far as him coming back and getting ready, I know he’s itching to get back out there. Anytime that when you’re young and you’re in a quarterback room that is having a competition, and you don’t get to be out there every day, that’s tough. My message to him would just be, ‘hey, don’t press. Just go out there and be yourself.’ Just because you missed a little bit of time here and there, that doesn’t mean that you have to go out and do extra when you get out there. Just go play your game. If there was a message for him, that would be it.”
From a measuring stick standpoint, how valuable is this to go against the number one defense from last year, the Super Bowl champions, for you guys to really see where you’re at?
“Yeah. I don’t know. Sometimes when you get in practices like this, I don’t know if you can truly say, oh, man, we won today or we lost today. But you can find out about how tough guys are, the guys that stick it out, really stick their nose in there, step up to the occasion of playing against a good team and they’re not afraid to do it. You don’t think that would happen at this level, where you get guys that get a little bit timid in certain situations, but, hey, there’s human nature in some things. So, I think you get to find out a lot about the mental makeup of your team in these environments. I think that was a good job for us today.”
What was your impression of the Eagles’ defense? They’ve had a lot of pieces change since last year.
“For sure. It’s such a small sample size. They look like they have some dudes up front and they have some experience in the back end, whether that’s experience of years in the league or guys that have a good feel for the game, and they’re very well coached. I know that. So, they’ve got a lot of things going for them.”
Kevin (Stefanski) said early on in camp that he wants to make a decision on who the starter is sooner rather than later. Do you get the sense that, especially knowing next week, he likes to treat as like a dress rehearsal, that this week is going to set the stage for that decision to be made?
“Kevin’s Kevin, man. He’s the one in charge, and I’m not really looking into when he’s going to do things and why he’s going to do things. As I’ve said, I’m just kind of going out there and being myself and feel really confident about what I’ve been doing, so that’s all I can do.”
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