The Eagles found their reserve defender at veteran Joe Flacco, 36, according to his agent Joe Linta.
Flacco is getting a one-year contract with a guaranteed $ 3.5 million, a league source told John Clark of NBC Sports Philadelphia. For reference, Flacco made just $ 1.5 million in a one-year contract last season.
With the Eagles, Flacco may have a chance to end his career for his hometown team and probably also support second year quarterback Jalen Hurts.
Before adding Flacco, Hurts was the only quarterback on the Eagles’ list. The Eagles left Carson Wentz for the Colts in February, and Nate Sudfeld became an unrestricted free agent when the league’s new year began on March 17.
For Flacco, this is a homecoming.
Flacco is a South Jersey native who studied at Audubon High School and the University of Delaware. He has been in the NFL since he was chosen in the first round in 2008.
Flacco played 11 seasons with the Ravens before spending the 2019 season with the Broncos and 2020 with the Jets. Last year, he started four games for the Jets, going 0-4 with 6 touchdowns and 3 interceptions. The Jets lost all four matches, but Flacco was not bad.
The Eagles left the first wave of free-agent defenders – guys like Andy Dalton, Tyron Taylor and Jacoby Brissett – to sign elsewhere. These were the players who were reserves or NFL starters and who would have actually competed with Hurts for the starting position. By hiring Flacco, the Eagles are showing that, unless they recruit a quarterback in the first round, Hurts will be the guy in 2021. It’s hard to imagine Flacco really pushing Hurts.
At this point in his career, Flacco is a reserve QB. But he is an experienced reserve who can help Hurts grow in the starting lineup.
Despite having neck surgery last April, Flacco signed a one-year contract with the Jets that was worth $ 1.5 million. Former Eagles vice president Joe Douglas is the general manager of the Jets. And while Douglas has not been with the Eagles since 2019, many of his former employees are still working in Philadelphia, including the man who took his place, Andy Weidl.
Like Douglas, Weidl spent many years under the command of Ozzie Newsome in Baltimore and was there when Flacco was drafted in 2008. So there is a certain level of familiarity with the veteran defender.
This neck injury was a major concern this time of last year, but the fact that Flacco played during the 2020 season should alleviate some of the fear. He will still need to have a medical exam.
In the first 10 years of his career, Flacco had an impressive record of 92-62 and had a record of 10-5 in the playoffs. He was the MVP of Super Bowl XLVII.
Flacco is also the subject of the internet’s most irritating question: Is Joe Flacco an elite? If he ever was, he is no more. In the last three seasons with Ravens, Broncos and Jets, Flacco has a record of 6-15. But, as a reserve quarterback for the Eagles, that makes a lot of sense.
In his career, Flacco has a completion rate of 61.7 with 224 touchdowns and 144 interceptions and a passer rating of 84.1.
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