Joe Flacco is playing meaningful football for the Cleveland Browns in 2023, which is absolutely bonkers. And this team could be dangerous when the postseason rolls around. At 9-5, the Browns might be out of the AFC North divisional race, but this team seems to be in a very comfortable spot in the Wild Card race.
And they're doing it with 68-year-old quarterback Joe Flacco, who has gone 2-1 in his three starts with the Browns since latching onto the team earlier this year. It was a bold move by the Browns to bring Flacco in, but it's paid off thus far. Flacco has played a ton of football. In fact, he's appeared in 186 regular season games. He's started 183 of those and has been credited with 101 wins during his career.
Something that also sticks out is his performance in the playoffs. He has a 10-5 postseason record, and eight of those wins have come on the road. Flacco's eight road playoffs wins is the second-most all-time, only behind Tom Brady. During his playoff career, he's tossed 25 touchdowns against 10 interceptions, so he's also producing at a decent level.
The Browns are also riding with an elite defense as well led by Myles Garrett and Jim Schwartz, who is in his first year as the Browns' DC. As of now, this team certainly isn't one-sided. The Browns and Flacco have proven that they can be adequate enough on offense to give their defense a shot to end the game, as we saw in Week 15 versus the Chicago Bears.
And when you also consider the overall uncertainty of the AFC as a whole, I think any team can make a run. The Baltimore Ravens appear to be the best team in the conference, but after that, it's a bit of a traffic jam, and it'd be a bad idea to discount the battle-tested Flacco and that defense.
Who would have thought in 2023 that Joseph Vincent Flacco would be playing meaningful football and just might appear in the postseason as well. What a time.