Despite spending most of his career in Baltimore, Joe Flacco is now a Cleveland icon. His ability to lead the 2023 Browns to the playoffs which earned him NFL Comeback Player of the Year honors was the biggest and most heartwarming story from last season.
Fans were disappointed that the Browns did not re-sign the 39-year-old former Super Bowl MVP. Flacco wanted to stay in Cleveland. The Colts signed Flacco to back up Anthony Richardson. His contract has a guaranteed value of $4.5 million and with incentives could earn him as much as $8.7 million.
That's why Tuesday's roster cut news surrounding Flacco's replacement, the man they chose instead of Flacco, Jameis Winston, has rubbed fans the wrong way. Dorian Thompson-Robinson will be QB2, and the Browns are now shopping around Winston whom they signed for a fully guaranteed amount of $4 million.
Browns fans want to know what was the point of this quarterback gymnastics. Fans like DTR but this is only his second season. If the plan was to keep him, why not keep both DTR and Flacco?
One fan said: "Again…Flacco was right there and he wanted to be here. I would have been comfortable with Watson, Joe and DTR. This preseason has been a mess but as always…Go Browns"
Another fan cannot believe the Browns are shopping Winston and Tyler Huntley given the number of quarterbacks they went through last season including DTR.
He said: "Watson has played in 10 games in 3 years. They need all the depth at that position they can get."
Another fan is generally confused.
He wrote: "We tried this last year, it didn’t work. You brought in Winston to be Watson’s back up. If the master plan was to keep DTR this entire time, they should’ve just resigned Flacco"
