Joe Flacco has stirred controversy with his recent remarks regarding the mentorship of younger quarterbacks during the team’s offseason, and now finds himself in hot water once again as his former teammate calls him out.
The veteran passer, who rejoined the Cleveland Browns after a brief but impressive 2023 stint, offered a cold take on the expectations placed upon him as a mentor, rejecting claims he should teach Shedeur Sanders and Dillon Gabriel how to play the game.
Now entering his 17th NFL season, Flacco is currently competing against Kenny Pickett and the aforementioned rookies from the 2025 NFL Draft and addressed the ongoing narrative surrounding veteran players, saying he doens’t bleieve he has to teach them.
“It’s a talking point. You can kind of, like, use it,” Flacco said. ” It’s a good question to bait somebody into answering, and no matter how they answer it kind of makes the guy that’s answering it look bad.
“If I say I don’t want to be a mentor, I look bad. If I say I do want to be a mentor, then I look like an idiot who doesn’t care about being good and playing football.
“I tend to try to be honest, and I’ve said I’m not a mentor. I play football. And in a quarterback room, there’s already been a ton of times where there’s learning experiences, and I have a lot of experience, and I can talk about things, and hopefully they listen, but it’s not necessarily, like, my job to make sure they listen to me.”
However, Chris Canty, who played alongside the QB at the Baltimore Ravens from 2013-15, has a fundamental disagreement with Flacco‘s perspective and believes the nuance of what the NFL journeyman is trying to say doesn’t wash with him.
The defensive lineman and current ESPN analyst made sure he lef nothing to the imagination as he declared mentoring is often an organic byproduct of collaboration, not necessarily a formal responsibility.
“Yes! [He should mentor young players.] Because mentoring a young player is only going to make that player better,” Canty said on Unsportsmanlike. “Which thereby makes the team better. You’re only as strong as your weakest link.
“So the whole point of the exercise is that everybody makes everyone better. … It’s what you’re supposed to do. It’s a ridiculous answer from Joe Flacco.”
Who is favourite to be the Browns’ starter?
While debate continues over his mentorship philosophy, Flacco is making a strong case to win the starting job and has emerged as the early favorite to land the nod from Kevin Stefanski at the Huntington Bank Field.
According to The Athletic’s Zac Jackson, Flacco is currently outperforming the other quarterbacks in Organized Team Activities (OTAs), noting that the 40-year-old veteran “should be” ahead of both rookies – Sanders and Gabriel.
Flacco and Pickett have taken the majority of first-team reps, alternating snaps throughout practice. Jackson also observed that Pickett, despite limited reps, has shown “some obvious gifts.”
Flacco‘s familiarity with offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell‘s system has put him in pole position heading into the next phase of offseason workouts, and in a stronger position with the risk of either him or Pickett being traded before the regular season begins.
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