Cleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski says that Joe Flacco will not play during his team’s season finale against the Cincinnati Bengals this Sunday, via Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk.
Jeff Driskel will start at quarterback in Flacco’s place.
The Browns are 11-5 and are locked into the No. 5 seed in the AFC, so whether they win or lose this weekend won’t matter. They can’t move up or down in the standings.
Taking that into consideration, it’s no surprise that Cleveland is opting to rest Flacco, who has done a remarkable job since taking the reins under center in December.
Flacco signed on to the Browns’ practice squad on Nov. 20 and proceeded to get his first start on Dec. 3, which ended up being a 36-19 loss to the Los Angeles Rams.
However, Flacco showed enough in the defeat to earn another start the following week, and since then, he has led Cleveland to four straight wins and has helped the club clinch just its third playoff berth since 2003.
In five starts, Flacco has thrown for 1,616 yards, 13 touchdowns and eight interceptions while completing 60.3 percent of his passes and posting a passer rating of 90.2. Most recently, he went 19-for-29 with 309 yards, three touchdowns and a pick in a win over the New York Jets.
Flacco represented the fourth starting quarterback the Browns used this season (Driskel is now the fifth).
The 38-year-old, who played his collegiate football at the University of Delaware, was originally selected by the Baltimore Ravens with the 18th overall pick of the 2008 NFL Draft.
He spent the first 11 years of his career with the Ravens, leading the franchise to a Super Bowl championship during the 2012-13 campaign.
Joe Flacco then spent one season with the Denver Broncos before joining the Jets for three years. Now, he certainly seems to have found a home in Cleveland.
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