The Cleveland Browns entered last season with four potential options at quarterback. Ultimately, Kevin Stefanski rolled with Joe Flacco to start Week 1, but he pulled the plug on the experiment just one month into the season. GM Andrew Berry inexplicably helped a divisional rival by trading Flacco to the Cincinnati Bengals.
Flacco turned the corner as soon as he arrived in Cincinnati. After completing 58.1 percent of his passes for 815 yards, two touchdowns, and six interceptions with Cleveland, he passed for 13 scores and just four picks as Joe Burrow's replacement. Stefanski tried to turn him into a guy he never was, dialing him back and having him play an ultra-conservative game that never truly took off.
That's why, now that he has re-signed with the Bengals, the former Super Bowl champion went no holds barred about his previous stops. As quoted by ESPN's Ben Baby, Flacco took a not-so-subtle jab at the teams that gave up on him.
"Believe me, I wish I was a guy somewhere. And I think teams are dumb for not having me be that guy," Flacco said. "Not being one of those guys to go sign somewhere, yeah, it pisses me off a little bit. But at the same time, I'm very happy to be here."
Joe Flacco throws not-so-subtle shade at the Browns
While he doesn't mention the Browns, you don't have to be a detective or a mind reader to realize they're also on that list. The Browns turned their backs on him after he led them to the playoffs in 2023, just to bring him back in 2025 when he was one year older, with an aging offensive line and fewer weapons to boot. Stefanski never put him in a position to succeed, and while he should also be held accountable for his subpar play, his emergence in Cincinnati proved that he may not have been the problem.
Granted, the Browns also did the right thing by testing the waters with their rookies. Even if Flacco balled out (which was a big if) he would have only been a short-term solution. The Browns needed to figure out what they had in Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders.
That said, one can't help but wonder how different things might have been had Flacco stayed after that playoff berth, or if the Browns had changed coaches before the start of the 2025 season. He's never been mobile or athletic, but he can sling the pigskin down the field, and the Browns' lack of a vertical game made them one of the most stagnant and predictable offensive teams in the league last season.
A full year passed, and the Browns may still not have found a franchise quarterback. Sanders is probably the safest bet to reach that level, and they did the right thing by bringing in a new head coach with fresh ideas to help revive the offense.
The Browns have admittedly made a ton of questionable decisions over the years, and trading Flacco to a divisional rival might've been near the top of that list. Now, only time will tell if they were also "dumb" for riding with Shedeur Sanders instead of a former Super Bowl-winning quarterback in the twilight of his career.