Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
Joe Flacco Addresses Whether he's Willing to Stick Around Denver to Backup Lock
2019 didn't turn out the way Joe Flacco or the Denver Broncos envisioned it would. The Broncos acquired Flacco via Baltimore in exchange for a fourth-round draft pick last spring.
After Flacco went 2-6 as a starter, posting a 6-to-5 touchdown-to-interception ratio, the general feeling around the Mile High City is, 'Gee, wish we had that fourth-rounder back'.
In his 12th year, Flacco was a shell of his former self and frankly, not the type of leader this young Broncos roster needed. He epitomized the 'pocket statue', which put additional pressure on the already beleaguered Broncos' offensive tackles.
GM John Elway thought Flacco was still in his 'prime' years. That turned out to be a farcical notion.
In Week 8, the Broncos blew a fourth-quarter lead on the road at Indianapolis and lost 15-13. Afterward, Flacco was critical of the coaches' decision-making in-game.
We learned the next morning that the veteran QB had a neck injury and within a few short days, the Flacco era was done in Denver. Notwithstanding his neck prognosis, Flacco wants to continue to play in the NFL and in a perfect world, he'd like to stay in Denver.
But would he be willing to stick around as a backup to Drew Lock? That's half of the question.
“Like I said, I’m probably a little bit more worried about other things at this point," Flacco said on Monday as the Broncos cleared out their lockers. "If that’s what it has to be, then—I want to play football. If that’s what it has to be, whether it’s here or wherever, if that’s what it’s going to take for me to get back in and start playing again, then yeah. I’ll go that route, but you never know what’s going to happen in the next couple of months.”
It sounds like Flacco has accepted that if he wants to continue to play in the NFL, it'll have to be as a backup. His days as the 'understood' quarterback going into a season are over.
The second-half to the question is this; would Flacco be willing to take a significantly reduced contract in order to stick around in Denver? If he is, there's a good chance the Broncos would be interested.
If he's not, well, then hit the bricks. Flacco's base salary balloons up to $20.25 million in 2020. There's literally not a snowball's chance in H-E-double-hockey sticks that Denver will be willing to pay him that money. Not even half of it.
Which likely means, for the sake of pride, Flacco will part ways with the Broncos and at least test the waters of free agency to see if there's any QB-desperate team willing to make him a band-aid starter.
In the likely event of Flacco finding a bear market for his services, the next logical leap is to seek a backup's contract. For what it's worth, Lock himself credited Flacco for helping him to navigate the pitfalls of his rookie season. Flacco could see a working relationship with Lock continuing.
“Of course," Flacco said. "I think Drew showed a lot about what he did the last few weeks of the season. He didn’t have a ton of experience, wasn’t able to practice and was still able to come in and play solid. I’ll honestly look into those things and think about those things when I have to. For now, I’m just kind of focused on working out, getting as healthy as I can and seeing what happens.”
Considering that Lock went 4-1 as a starter, the Broncos have anointed him the guy heading into 2020 but haven't publicly telegraphed what their intentions with Flacco are. But it doesn't take a football genius to divine what's likely to happen next.
“We haven’t gotten into that yet, but we’ll look at that and see what’s best," Elway said in his end-of-season presser alongside Vic Fangio. "Obviously, we’re going to take some time. This year we’ll do it a little bit different than we’ve done in the past. We’re going to wait for our own team evaluations for a month. We’re going to get away from it. The coaches will look at it. The personnel side will look at it, get together early February and really get a good objective view of what our team’s going to look like next year and what we need to do. I think that’s why we’ll take the time and evaluate everything. Obviously, Joe will be one of those that we’ll look at and we’ll see his situation.”
For now, Flacco is focused on rehab and eventually getting another MRI in about a month to determine whether he'll be physically able to continue his playing career. The new league year doesn't start until March, so he's got some time to figure out his next move.
Follow Chad on Twitter @ChadNJensen and @MileHighHuddle.
