Ravens Undrafted Rookie QB Joe Fagnano Undaunted By Challenges Ahead

Joe Fagnano left M&T Bank Stadium Friday night proud and hopeful, having just put another excellent outing of NFL preseason quarterbacking on film. He projected confidence and said he would be able to sleep well knowing he had done everything possible to crack the Ravens 53-man roster.

But as calm and measured as he has been throughout this wild summer journey, Fagnano’s mind was racing all weekend. To come from nowhere – not even a priority undrafted free-agent signing, a late invitee to help the Ravens get through a spring camp after a career spent at UCONN and Maine – to the cusp of perhaps appearing on an NFL roster and going to work everyday at an NFL facility and getting an NFL paycheck, is heady stuff indeed.

The fact that he is already 25 and has bounced around some and been a late bloomer helped. The fact that he, like another former small-school Ravens quarterback named Joe (Flacco), was already married to his high-school sweetheart and focused entirely on football and not the things that come with it, clearly served him well, too. But in his wildest dreams, especially before veteran No. 3 quarterback Skylar Thompson went down with a sudden season-ending injury, there was no way he could have fathomed spending the morning of NFL cutdown day waiting to find out if he’d made the damn team.

Not the practice squad; the roster.

To hear the words come out of the mouth of Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta, that he’d made the team, were difficult to process in real-time, and of course surprised the young man, who needed a minute to sit down and get his head around it all.

The best moment every year 🥹

EDC tells undrafted rookies @joefagnano and @eburke4lax that they've officially made the 53-man roster: pic.twitter.com/uyKmhBNbyn
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) August 31, 2026

“Just trying to stay busy throughout the day,” Fagnano explained when he met the media Monday night. “Got the call to come into the office. My head immediately went to, 'Oh man, this might be it,' and then I went in there and he said, 'You made the team.' Obviously, there's a video out there that shows my emotions on how I felt about the interaction, and it was super cool. It was good to be out at practice today and just back to playing football."

Ultimately, this outcome wasn’t about a feelgood, Cinderella story, it was about football and trying to win now and in the future. Fagnano simply forced his way into that equation.

“The last spot or two often comes down to the best player; really the kind of player that plays the best,”’ head coach Jesse Minter explained. “So, I just give Joe a ton of credit for how he played. He legitimately played his way onto this roster and just felt like it gave us the best situation for the quarterbacks. Again, a guy that probably would have had a lot of interest from other teams with the way that he played, and so you do not want to let good players like that leave your building.”

No Ordinary Joe

The mental calculus for any young NFL player making it through his first training camp is difficult, trying to sort through the math with your agent (he has the same one, Joe Linta, who still stewards Flacco through his lengthy career) and figure out if other teams might claim if you are cut. It can be a grind, and can dominate your thoughts. Clearly, there isn’t much more Fagnano could have done on the field or in the meeting rooms to show significant upside and the ability to grasp this offense in the present. That’s often not enough.

Most teams prefer not to keep more than two QBs and the Ravens already had a two-time MVP here in Lamar Jackson and a long-time, trusted backup in Snoop Huntley, who shares a strong bond with Jackson.

Would a team with Super Bowl expectations, having an extreme draft class (11 players), and lacking ideal depth at other positions, make room for someone this green in the end, knowing he was never really in their original plans as even a practice squad guy let alone as 1 of 53. So, naturally, the final verdict left him a little speechless. (When he does talk he sound san awful lot like Flacco and Linta jokingly referred to him as "Flacco 2.0" to him, as there are definitely some similarities here).

“From what I was told from vets and guys that have been through this,” Fagnano said, “it's like, 'No news is good news.' When I got that text and the call to come in, immediately you start going through the situations in your head of what might be happening.

“So, yes — I was surprised. But that's not to say I didn't have confidence in myself. I know I am a good football player. I think I belong in this league. I'll keep saying it — there's a lot of work that I have to do. I have to keep improving, but I am always going to have confidence in myself."

Having to learn a new system and adapt to new coaches and players and verbiage as a novice NFL QB and do it with the dearth of reps receiving in practice and then have to go out and eat up half a preseason game or three quarters of a preseason game, is quite the daunting assignment. Fagnano exuded extreme care, pride, dedication and discipline in thriving in all three games to the point where he led the NFL in dropbacks, completions and passing yards in the preseason and looked very comfortable operating under center and selling play action and thriving in the bootlegs and cross-field, misdirection throws that could have led to negative plays and turnovers.

He did it all behind a shaky, makeshift offensive line and surrounded mostly by rookies who were younger than him and played less college football than him and very little NFL football of any kind. Even getting tapped to try to perform in the initial mini camp was a brave new horizon for Fagnano and he just never stopped growing and advancing.

“To be able to come here and put that logo on and represent the Ravens was something I was very proud of,” he said, “even just coming in for rookie minicamp. And then, once I got my foot in the door, I just wanted to keep chugging along and keep pushing."

Sharing The News

Fagnano immediately called his parents and his wife Monday after meeting with DeCosta, reflecting on a journey with his mom and dad regularly driving up to 12 hours to see him play in college. His parents seemed less in awe of the outcome than him, as they clearly believed all along, but then there was work to be done.

Fagnano didn’t already beat the odds this drastically by ever getting static or basking in anything he accomplished during the exhibitions or practices. The challenges only get greater now that rosters around the NFL have been thinned to the best of the best, and the preparation takes on much more meaning with the standings on the line.

He will be running the scout team, and the real reps will be scant and the intensity will be heightened throughout the week. He must fight to stay on the roster – and injuries and roster churn will set in, and the practice squad might always beckon. Thie quarterback is clearly level and pragmatic, and he’s already on to the task at hand.

“I have kind of come back down to Earth and realize that I have a job to do,” Fagnano said. “To do whatever I can to help this team win games."

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