Joe Flacco inked a one-year deal worth $3.5 million to be the backup quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles. The deal could escalate to $4.25 million if the former Super Bowl MVP hits certain incentives. Flacco came into training camp talking about possibly competing for the starting job, but that ship has sailed.
While the 36-year-old New Jersey native looked sharp in the Eagles’ preseason opener, his second audition to unseat Jalen Hurts left many people scratching their heads. Flacco went 10-of-17 for 83 yards on Thursday night against the New England Patriots. He chucked a bad interception and failed to scoop up the ball after a botched snap from Nate Herbig.
His performance was even more alarming considering the abysmal outing from third-stinger Nick Mullens. Depth at the quarterback position could be a problem in Philly, especially with the limited snaps Hurts has seen in the preseason. The good news is that Flacco is a proven veteran and he didn’t sound like a guy too worried about one bad preseason game.
“Practices aren’t games,” Flacco said. “We have to learn how to carry one thing into the next and keep building on things and stacking positive days. The more of those that you have and the more that you do, then the more wins you come away with. It’s just part of the learning experience and hopefully, we can take out of it what we can and get the positives and move on in a positive way.”
Flacco referenced Peyton Manning struggling in preseason games to further pound home his point.
“I think Peyton Manning back then used to go 0-4 or 0-5 if they played in the Hall of Fame Game and it didn’t matter at all,” Flacco said. “I think depending on the type of style that you play and how much you end up playing your starters and things like that. Those things are all nuance.”
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Clarifying the Decision to Sit Hurts
Nick Sirianni’s decision to sit Hurts out in the second preseason game has been a polarizing subject in Philly. The second-year quarterback was rushed to the hospital with a stomach bug, but not everyone has bought that he was sick.
Sports talk radio lines have been lighting up as fans continue to speculate it was all a ruse. The Eagles just wanted to rest their starters. But we have to take Sirianni at face value — why would the head coach lie about his franchise signal-caller being sick? — and move on to the next game.
“He really wanted to play. He really wanted to play, and we decided that that just wasn’t in the best interest of the team and of him,” Sirianni said. “He was trying to — he was fighting me in playing tonight. I know he would’ve wanted to, but that’s where you have to lean on the doctors, too, and make a decision, and that’s what we did.”
Sirianni Sends Message to Eagles
The preseason isn’t the regular season and that was the main message that Sirianni sent to his team. He was pleased with the way the Eagles practiced earlier in the week — they held joint practices with the Patriots — and isn’t going to sweat it too much. Of course, Sirianni understands the effort wasn’t good enough on Thursday.
“We had a good day on Monday. Tuesday, we competed pretty hard against the Patriots, and today wasn’t good enough,” Sirianni said. “You have to stack practices on top of each other, stack quarters on top of each other, stack plays on top of each other, stack games on top of each other. So, it’s not good enough to come out, play a good game one day, compete the next day and play a little bit better than okay and play bad the third day.”
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