Joe Flacco, still going strong at age 40, will be the ninth NFL quarterback to start Game 1 of a season past his 40th birthday. (Cleveland Browns)
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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.
Joe Flacco did something in his first NFL game he never did again. He scored a touchdown on a 38-yard run.
It came against the Bengals when Flacco broke in with the Baltimore Ravens – 18 years to the very day he will make his 192nd career start, also against the Bengals.
“It was a reverse,” Flacco said. “I was supposed to hand it to Le’Ron McClain and he was supposed to hand it to the receiver. I think Le’Ron kind of forgot that was happening. I could have just handed it to the receiver, but I kind of just took it around the side myself. I was going to just go run, take the first down and get out of bounds. And I kind of got to that point like, all right, I might as well keep going. And, you know, the rest is history.”
He was 23. Now he’s 40, starting his 18th NFL season. He's one of only nine NFL quarterbacks to start a Game 1 after his 40th birthday.
“He told us that story this week about that play,” coach Kevin Stefanski said. “I don’t know that we pulled it up. I don’t know if our tape goes back that far, but yeah, he can still move. The good Lord has blessed him.”
Since the Ravens drafted Lamar Jackson in 2018, Flacco’s career was redefined as “journeyman." He made stops in Denver, New York, Cleveland, Indianapolis, and now back in Cleveland. And although he hasn’t made more than nine starts in a season since 2017, he says he feels better than ever.
I asked him to give us the “state of Joe Flacco” as his 18th season begins.
“I feel good,” he said. “I think it’s just the constant reminders of just, play your role, do your part. This is a team game, and it’s about all of us going out there and preparing to do our job the right way. Getting through training camp and getting ready to go into this opener, I feel good. But, you know, hey, I think everybody usually feels pretty good, even if they’ve had a hard training camp. Everybody feels pretty good heading into week one. So, it’s a matter of realizing that this may be the last time you feel 100% and kind of just going in there with an open mind and having a lot of fun.”
After giving up reps early in training camp to sort out the other QBs, Stefanski said Flacco has been exclusively with the first team since he was announced as the starter on August 18.
It has allowed some of the more important veterans on offense to appreciate what they have in Flacco.
“You know, a veteran quarterback that knows the game of football, that's got a lot left in the tank,” said receiver Jerry Jeudy. “Knows where to put the ball for receivers to make plays, understands how receivers like the ball placed, knowing where to go with the ball. A smart quarterback that they can learn a lot from him.”
Right tackle Jack Conklin was rehabbing a serious knee injury in 2023 when Flacco worked his magic in December and led the Browns to the playoffs.
“I would never have guessed he's a 40-year-old quarterback,” Conklin said. “I mean, he's real sharp. I mean, his arm … he can throw bombs still, and it looks natural. It doesn't look like it's hurting him or anything like that.
“It's just nice to have a guy back there who's seen everything, knows everything, and has a way of, whether it's getting us in the right protection or just knowing where his hot [receiver] is. He knows what to do, and it's just like a machine. It just goes right back to his factory settings and just is ready to know what to do.”
In Flacco’s five starts for the Browns in 2023, he took just eight sacks on 212 pass dropbacks. That sack percentage of 3.77 was the lowest of his career, and he played behind a third-string left tackle, Geron Christian, and second-string right tackle, James Hudson, in those games.
“That’s just music to my ears,” Conklin said. “As an offensive lineman, the quarterback that is willing to get rid of the ball or just come up and just see, knows where his hots are, knows what's coming, who's going to be open, just knows it right away. That's hard to manufacture. When you have a quarterback who can do that, it's just great. It gives us great confidence, too, as an offensive line.”
Flacco agreed that he should be a better quarterback in 2025, given a full training camp with his team, than he was in that short, one-month stint in 2023.
“I feel like mentally, you do become a better quarterback [as] a more experienced quarterback,” he said. “You’re always learning something. So, I feel if you can keep your physical attributes the same, or if you were just to just call those even, then, yes, I think as the years go on, you do gain knowledge and become better at the position.”
Szmyt happens
Kicker Andre Szmyt has kicked in one preseason game in Huntington Bank Field and in one practice there this week. He bisected the uprights for a game-winning field goal against the Rams, which locked up the job as the Browns’ eighth kicker in six years and the successor to Dustin Hopkins.
It was Szmyt’s first-ever NFL preseason game. Sunday against the Bengals will mark his first-ever real NFL game.
“I'm ready to go,” he said. “I treat everything the same, whether it's college, the UFL. I have my process, and at the end of the day, it's still kicking.”
In five years at Syracuse, Szmyt missed only 14 kicks (field goals + PAT) in 308 attempts. In two years with St. Louis of the United Football League, Szmyt was 20 of 23. Two of his misses came from 50+ yards. He also made a kick from 56 yards.
In both of his previous teams, Szmyt was able to kick indoors at home games. He’s heard all about the devilish nuances of kicking inside Huntington Bank Stadium, and he is unfazed. He is comforted by the fact he was raised in suburban Chicago and will not be culture-shocked when the brutal Cleveland winter arrives.
“I know it's a tough division to kick in, but, you know, I've trained through the wintertime just staying ready as a free agent in the past and obviously going to Syracuse,” he said. “I mean, we played indoors, but we also played against Pitt, you know, at that [Acrisure] stadium. Kicking in Chicago, too. I mean, in the wintertime, it's pretty brutal.”
To mark the occasion of making an NFL roster for the first time, Szmyt, who turns 27 this month, changed his jersey number from 47 to 25.
Why 25?
“I figured it's a good year to symbolize, you know, making [the team],” he said.
Brownie bits
The Browns listed six players as limited on their injury list and only one, defensive tackle Mike Hall, who did not practice …
Stefanski was asked if he would share his No. 1 concern about his team heading into the opener. “Am I willing to? No. Surely you can’t be serious,” he said with a chuckle …
Rookie tight end Harold Fannin changed his jersey number from 88 to 44, which is the number he wore as a star at Bowling Green.