Film & Numbers
When Flacco ran the show in 2023, Cleveland scored 28.6 points per game over his five regular-season starts, up from the team’s yearlong average, and he averaged 323.2 passing yards per game with 13 touchdowns. That run included four straight 300-yard games, the first time any Browns quarterback has ever done that, and the playoff-clincher over the Jets in Week 17.
Those numbers came from a throw chart that lived in the intermediate window and still pushed the ball downfield. In his Browns debut, Next Gen Stats logged 19 attempts of 10-plus air yards, the most by a Cleveland quarterback in five years at the time.
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Protection was very solid during that 2023 stretch. Flacco took eight sacks on 212 dropbacks, right around a 3.8 percent sack rate, which is comfortably efficient for a pocket passer and speaks to communication up front. He will still hunt intermediate and deep windows, so the ball is not always out instantly.
League tracking from that year showed Flacco among the higher time-to-throw group while pairing it with one of the league’s highest intended air-yards profiles, and his air yards per attempt checked in near the top of qualified passers. That combo only works if the tackles hold up and the center and guards pass off games. Give him that pocket, and he will layer digs and crossers, sprinkle in two or three deep shots a game, and let the receivers do the rest.