Joe Flacco will always be remembered for coming 'off the couch' in his South Jersey home and leading the Browns to the playoffs in 2023 with four straight wins.
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Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns and NFL analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland. He has covered the Browns since 1984.
From the beginning, 2025 was all about the Browns’ rookie class and setting up 2026 for even more rookies.
And that is never more evident than now.
Five weeks into a season going south fast, GM Andrew Berry paved the way for rookie quarterbacks Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders to steer the team to the 2026 draft.
For the second time in six weeks, Berry traded a veteran quarterback for a fifth-round draft pick.
In August, he sent Kenny Pickett to Las Vegas when the Raiders came calling. On Tuesday, the Cincinnati Bengals asked for Joe Flacco and Berry was happy to oblige.
The Bengals also received a sixth-round pick – obtained from Detroit last year for Za’Darius Smith – in exchange for Cincinnati’s fifth-round pick.
The trade can be considered a win-win-win-win deal.
* The Bengals, who at 2-3 might be the only AFC North team capable of chasing the 3-1 Steelers for the division title, add an experienced QB better than Jake Browning, who has been abysmal filling in for injured starter Joe Burrow.
The Bengals were so desperate for an upgrade at quarterback (at a low cost) that they waived owner Mike Brown’s ban on trading with the Browns, which dates back to the 1960s from hard feelings over former owner Art Modell’s firing of Hall of Fame coach Paul Brown, Mike’s father.
* Berry further bolsters his war chest for the 2026 draft.
The swap of Detroit’s sixth for Cincinnati’s fifth keeps the Browns’ total picks in 2026 at 10, but it increases the overall value of Berry’s war chest. In addition to their own picks in Rounds 1-5, the Browns now have additional picks in the first (Jacksonville), fifth (Cincinnati and Las Vegas), sixth (Jets), and seventh (Seattle) rounds.
* Flacco gets the chance to duplicate his Browns magic from 2023 with the Bengals – his third team now from the AFC North.
Flacco’s turnover problems this year stemmed in large part with issues on the Browns’ offensive line. He won’t find much relief there in Cincinnati, whose line is worse than the Browns’. But in Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, Flacco will be throwing to the best pair of receivers of his 18-year career.
Flacco did not ask for a trade, but he was agreeable after Berry explained to him the Browns wanted to see Gabriel and Sanders get extensive play time over the next 12 games.
“Joe loves Cleveland and understands what happened over the last four weeks,” Joe Linta, Flacco’s agent, responded in text to TheLandOnDemand. “He has really cherished his time in Cleveland and looks forward to a new challenge in Cincinnati. Joe is like any kid in America who plays football. He would much rather be on the field than on the bench.”
Flacco wrote a fun chapter in Browns history by winning four games in a row in December of 2023 to lead the team to the playoffs. His four 300-yard passing games inspired “Flacco Fever,” until two Pick 6’s in a wild-card playoff game in Houston led to a lopsided loss. Flacco returned this year after a one-year stint in Indianapolis. He won the starting job in training camp after Pickett was felled by a Grade 2 hamstring strain.
* Sanders, who has said he’s ready to play, moves up a notch to QB2 – just one play away from making his first NFL appearance.
But he’ll still have to sit behind Gabriel, whose NFL debut in London against the Vikings bolstered Berry’s belief that Flacco was not going to get his starting job back anytime soon.
The trade of Flacco leaves the Browns with two rookie quarterbacks who’ve never won an NFL game as it heads to Pittsburgh to face the Steelers on Sunday. The Browns have not won a regular-season game in Pittsburgh since October 5, 2003.
The trade of Flacco doesn’t make coach Kevin Stefanski’s job any easier. Nor will it pick up the morale of the veterans in the locker room. They have to wonder if Berry is orchestrating a 2017-style tank job to situate the Browns with the highest possible draft pick for the forthcoming quarterback-rich 2026 draft.
One other factor probably influenced this trade. DeShaun Watson is nearing the point when he’ll be medically cleared to practice with the team. At that point, the Browns would have a three-week window to either make Watson active or keep him sidelined for the remainder of the year.
Watson has been ahead of schedule in rehabbing from two offseason Achilles tendon surgeries. It’s very possible that Watson will be restored to active status after the team’s Week 9 bye week.
So Berry probably figured if the Browns need a veteran QB to either play or backup one of the rookies down the road, it might as well be Watson because the club is paying him $46 million anyways.