If Mike Tannenbaum’s opinion is shared within the Cleveland Browns facility, veteran quarterback Joe Flacco should expect to be under center Week 1 against the Cincinnati Bengals.
Tannenbaum shared his opinion that the 40-year-old who guided the Browns to the playoffs in 2023 would be a “great bridge quarterback” to Shedeur Sanders.
Flacco is of course a Super Bowl champion but has not started more than nine games in a season since his penultimate season with the Baltimore Ravens, 2017. He spent 2024 with the Indianapolis Colts, going 2-4 with a 12-7 touchdown-to-INT rate and 65.3 completion percentage.
Still, as the senior-most quarterback in Cleveland’s crowded QB room, Flacco should expect to be QB1 in September.
Why Is Joe Flacco Likely To Be The Browns’ Week 1 Starting Quarterback?
The Browns overhauled their whole quarterbacks room this off-season, bringing back Flacco, signing Kenny Pickett and selecting Sanders and Dillon Gabriel in the 2025 NFL Draft.
But even though Pickett has also been a starting quarterback in the NFL, most recently with the Pittsburgh Steelers where he started 12 games in both 2022 and 2023, Flacco should get the nod, according to the longtime NFL executive and current ESPN analyst, Tannenbaum.
“I think you start Joe Flacco — great bridge quarterback,” Tannenbaum said on “Get Up” on Wednesday. “We know how difficult this Browns schedule is to start.”
What Tannenbaum is alluding to is the fact five of Cleveland’s first six games are against 2024 playoff teams, and the other is against the Bengals, who are widely predicted to be in the mix for the AFC championship this season.
That’s why Flacco would get the nod in Week 1, especially since Sanders and Gabriel were each third-day draft picks, and Pickett has just a 79.3 QB rating and 15-14 touchdown-to-INT rate in three NFL seasons.
“I expect [Flacco] to be well-positioned in that hierarchy that they set up early in camp,” Jeremy Fowler of ESPN said, agreeing with Tannenbaum’s assessment.
Still, fellow on-air panelist and former NFL quarterback E.J. Manuel feels it is a bad look that Cleveland hasn’t yet named a top QB.
“If you’re trying to compete in this division, you need to know who your quarterback is at this point,” Manuel said. “You can’t go into training camp saying ‘we’re just going to roll the ball out and see who the best is in preseason.’ You need to have a pecking order, and you need to know who the leader is.”
Who Will Be the Browns’ Starting Quarterback After Joe Flacco?
Flacco has already effectively retired from the NFL once — the Browns plucked him off the couch in 2023 — and Cleveland would not have picked two QBs in this year’s draft if he had a long shelf life.
So Fowler and Tannenbaum feel Sanders will be the first quarterback to succeed Flacco. The move could come early in the year too.
“I think their future could be Shedeur Sanders,” Tannenbaum said. “To me, Shedeur Sanders should be given a chance at some point to try to be the future.”
But even though Sanders is well thought-of, based on his physical gifts (6-1, 212 pounds), each of the panelists agreed the Browns could target a quarterback again if they are picking near the top of the 2026 NFL Draft.
“The 2026 draft, there’s a bunch of potential first-round picks. Maybe four or five guys that could be first-rounders,” Manuel said. “I just don’t know why you’d pick two quarterbacks in this draft.”
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