When a team makes one of the most colossal personnel mistakes in the history of the league that also happens to be the most expensive position in the game, they have to resort to a multitude of options to plug the leak. A current first round bust with 15 touchdowns and 14 interceptions in 25 starts? Check. A rookie drafted in the third round and then another in the fifth? Check. This would be a quarterback room (in addition to Deshaun Watson on the IR) that would be the frontrunner to lead the franchise to the #1 overall slot in the 2026 NFL Draft. But wait, there’s more. How about another former first rounder with over 100 career wins in the NFL? One that happens to be 40-years old. That is the box Joe Flacco signed, the same Joe Flacco that won the NFL Comeback Player of the Year award in 2023 with the, you guessed it, the Cleveland Browns.
Pickett has not exactly had the fairest of paths to being an NFL starter. As a rookie in 2023, he went 7-5 (the team went 2-3 in non-Pickett starts). In 2024, he went 7-5 once again (the team went 3-3 in non-Pickett starts). In March 2024 following the signings of Russell Wilson and Justin Fields, Pickett was traded to the Super Bowl champion Eagles where he backed up Jalen Hurts. He entered year four with a 14-10 career record. While the results to this point have been less than inspiring, we have seen worse from quarterbacks who have been given a longer leash with better situations. Recent reclamation projects Baker Mayfield, Geno Smith, and Sam Darnold do feed the notion that Pickett could be the next ex-first rounder to benefit from a change of scenery.
Prediction: Flacco
We will likely see multiple starting quarterbacks in Cleveland this season. In fact, we may see more starting quarterbacks in Cleveland than any NFL city this fall. Flacco is the easy answer, though. He is the only one to prove he can run an NFL offense and he has done it for multiple teams. Even though he is 40-years old and his athleticism takes a hit yearly, he knows the nuances of the position when it comes to footwork and reading defenses at a much higher level than anyone in the room.