Joe Flacco Defines His Role with the Eagles

PHILADELPHIA - New Eagles quarterback Joe Flacco defined his job description at his introductory press conference on Thursday morning and the South Jersey native kept it about competition.

About to enter his 14th NFL season, the former Audubon High School star turned Super Bowl winner agreed to a one-year deal worth $3.5 million with another $4M in escalators, presumably to be the backup to second-year signal-caller Jalen Hurts.

“Right now, I’m here to play a part in the role of the 53-man roster that wants to win a lot of football games," he said. "Obviously, I’m a competitor, and listen, I think all those things of being competitive brings out the best in a room anyway and brings out the best in a football team. So that’s really the conversation that we’ve had at this point.”

Flacco said he and Hurts have had a conversation via text.

"Jalen texted me when news came out," said Flacco. "He’s excited about it. I told him I’m excited about it as well. It’s going to be a lot of fun."

In his decade-long stint as the starter in Baltimore and a one-year tenure in Denver where he signed to be the starter, Flacco wasn’t exactly keen on helping polish his heirs apparent - Lamar Jackson and Drew Lock, respectively - or at least that was the narrative.

Last season, however, Flacco did his part with the New York Jets trying to help along with Sam Darnold on what was a bad team with a coach [Adam Gase] who essentially had one foot out the door.

The Eagles, of course, had their own issues at QB last season with Carson Wentz’s resentment over the drafting of Hurts at No. 53 overall in the 2020 NFL Draft, the first domino in what turned out to be an ugly divorce with $33.8M in assets pledged toward a football version of alimony.

Harmony at the QB position is imperative for Philadelphia and its new and very young coaching staff moving forward.

“We didn’t really talk about that too much," Flacco said when discussing his role and the potential to start. “I talked a little bit to [head coach] Nick [Sirianni] about just coming in here and looking at the benefits, and weighing the positives and negatives and all of those things."

When pressed on how he’s handled so-called mentorship roles in the past, Flacco was consistent pointing to a sports-minded approach - essentially compete and let the chips fall where they may.

“I think I’ve spoken to it a little bit in just saying that I’m here to do what’s best for our team and help us win football games,” he said. “The thing I’ve said so far is that, you know, I think competition in any room and on any team is something that brings out the best and that’s really what I’m here to do.”

From Flacco’s perspective, his role doesn’t change whether he’s penciled in as QB1 or QB2.

“I know we’ve talked about it before in different places, but I think it’s that simple,” he said. “A football team is not one or two guys. It’s a bunch of guys doing what they’re supposed to do. Quarterback rooms, that’s how they are in general anyway.

"You get in there and you grind and you go to town on the game plan and it’s always a very tight room that everybody in there has a lot of input and bounces things off of each other and we work together to get the job done. That’s how it’s going to be and that’s how it always is.”

From there, all the wiggle room was removed and Flacco was asked if he will mentor Hurts, the presumed plan for the Eagles stemming from Jeffrey Lurie’s reported desire to build around the former Heisman Trophy runner-up.

“I think every quarterback room, guys help each other,” Flacco noted. “That’s what we’re here for. That’s what the whole team does, so I’m going to do my part and we’re going to win a lot of football games and part of that is getting in the QB room, grinding and helping each other out.”

Flacco then laid out the path to do exactly that.

“Your goal as a football player is to always show people around you that you can play football,” said Flacco. “... I don’t care what level of playing that is, whether you’re the first-string, second-string, third-string guy on the team, you still want to prove to everybody on the football team that you can play football and you deserve a spot on this team in some capacity, and that’s really what my job is.

“... My job is to prove to these guys that I deserve some respect and I can play this game at a high level. That’s really what I mean by being competitive and competing is just showing guys that I know how to do this and I’m going to show you I know how to do this. You don’t have to look at what I’ve done in the past or in a positive way or negative way. Just take it for what it is, what you see today and that’s what I’m here to do.”

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.

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