Eagles Bringing in South Jersey's Joe Flacco for a Visit

PHILADELPHIA - The Eagles are kicking the tires on South Jersey native Joe Flacco Monday, a league source confirmed to SI.com's Eagle Maven.

An Audubon, N.J. native, Flacco attended Audubon High School before committing to the University of Pittsburgh and then transferring to Delaware where he came a star and turned into an NFL first-round pick, No. 18 overall in the 2008 draft to the Baltimore Ravens.

Now 36, Flacco went on to glory with the Ravens, leading Baltimore to a Super Bowl XLVII championship over the San Francisco 49ers in New Orleans.

He's now set to enter his 14th year as a professional after more than a decade with the Ravens and the last two seasons with Denver and the New York Jets.

Known as "Joe Cool" for his unflappable demeanor, Flacco won 10 postseason games with the Ravens and was at one time the highest-paid QB in the NFL after winning the big game but his career turned south after tearing his ACL during the 2015 season.

Second-year quarterback Jalen Hurts is the only signal-caller the Eagles currently have under contract, so bodies need to be added at the position.

Owner Jeffrey Lurie has reportedly instructed his personnel department to build up around Hurts and not consider taking a QB at No. 6 overall in the 2020 draft, something which could potentially derail Hurts.

In 13 NFL seasons, Flacco has won nearly 100 games as a starter (98-77), thrown for more than 40,000 yards (40,931) with 224 touchdowns vs. 144 interceptions. He was the full-time starter in Baltimore from his rookie season until being replaced by Lamar Jackson during the 2018 campaign. Eagles vice president of player personnel Andy Weidl was with the Ravens until moving to Philadelphia in 2016.

Flacco is the first free-agent QB the Eagles have expressed public interest, but they've also been linked to Nick Foles for another go-round. Foles remains on the Chicago roster but the Bears are believed to be shopping him after signing Andy Dalton to be the starter.

There are also persistent rumors that the Eagles are at least keeping an eye on superstar Deshaun Watson, who really wants out of Houston. Acquiring Watson would take a haul as far as draft capital and potentially Hurts going back to Houston but any move has also been recently complicated by a host of serious civil accusations against the former Clemson star.

"Like Coach [Nick Sirianni] said, and he reminds me daily, we only have one quarterback on our roster," GM Howie Roseman said last week. "It's definitely not going to stay that way. We've always tried to value that position and have depth at that position. I don't see any of that changing here as we go forward. That's nothing we would be comfortable with.

"We want to have a really strong quarterback room. We feel like we have incredible coaches on the offensive side of the ball and the defensive side of the ball who can maximize quarterback play. We're going to look at the free-agent market, the trade market, and we're certainly going to look at the draft to try to strengthen that position."

John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's EagleMaven and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John every Monday and Thursday on The Middle with Eytan Shander, Harry Mayes, former Eagles OT Barrett Brooks streaming live on both PhillyVoice.com and SportsMap Radio. John is also the host of his own show "Extending the Play" on AM1490 in South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen

Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s EagleMaven. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.