Dawgs By Nature
Cleveland Browns quarterback Joe Flacco brings more than just a “big arm” to the team.
Flacco brings familiarity with head coach Kevin Stefanski’s offensive system. He also brings a wealth of experience after having made 191 starts over 17 years in the NFL. That includes 16 playoff starts and one Super Bowl MVP.
One of Flacco’s biggest assets is that he has seen just about everything there is to see at the NFL level. That experience is valuable not only in meetings with quarterbacks Kenny Pickett, Dillon Gabriel, and Shedeur Sanders, who have combined to play in 30 total games at the pro level, all by Pickett. It should also be helpful for a roster that is still trying to figure out how to put together a consistent effort from week to week.
Earlier today, the Browns had the first of two joint practices with the Philadelphia Eagles, with Flacco meeting with the media following practice. And two things he talked about stood out, the first being that while he may not be a fan of practicing against another team, he said it can help players balance out how they approach the game (quotes via a team-provided transcript):
“… in order to play this game at a high level, you have to be able to compete, but also not have your mind racing and get so revved up. It’s such an emotional game, right? For pretty much every position on the field, you have to bring that (emotion) to the field. How do you play with that emotion but also be within yourselves, within the scheme, and within all that, and then just concentrate on the basics of catching the football and running with the football. Like, how do you balance both of them?
“I think being in an environment against a different team it gives you that experience. Then you can look back on it and say, man, why did I do this thing extra this time when I normally would have just taken four steps and caught the ball? Why did I decide to do a little bit extra to top my route? Next time I won’t do that, like you don’t need to. So, anytime you have actual competition, I think when you have guys that are willing to work through it and know that it’s not always going to be pretty, you find out a little bit about how to actually go into that competition and still relax and play.” – Browns QB Joe Flacco
The second is that the opportunity to go up against another team reveals who really wants to be there:
“Sometimes when you get in practices like this, I don’t know if you can truly say, oh, man, we won today or we lost today. But you can find out about how tough guys are, the guys that stick it out, really stick their nose in there, step up to the occasion of playing against a good team,...
