{"id":99850,"date":"2025-06-03T05:02:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-03T05:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/99850\/"},"modified":"2025-06-03T05:02:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T05:02:10","slug":"flacco-responds-to-browns-mentor-headlines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/99850\/","title":{"rendered":"Flacco Responds to Browns’ Mentor Headlines"},"content":{"rendered":"

Flacco Responds to Browns’ Mentor Headlines<\/a> originally appeared on Athlon Sports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Cleveland Browns<\/a> are never too far from a negative headline, but that\u2019s life as a maligned organization. The negatives get overblown, the neutral doesn\u2019t get the benefit of the doubt, and every storyline has the potential to become a problem.<\/p>\n

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Make no mistake, the Browns<\/a>\u2019 biggest problem is its quarterback situation. With quarterback Deshaun Watson haunting the offense from (presumably) injured reserve, Cleveland will turn to one of Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett, Dillon Gabriel, or Shedeur Sanders \u2013 the latter two being mid-round picks from the 2025 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n

Flacco is expected to compete for the starting job, and he makes the most sense to be under center for Week 1. But when his comments about not being the most willing mentor hit the timeline at organized team activities (OTAs), Cleveland<\/a> lost contain of a relative non-issue.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Albert Breer<\/a>, Flacco got honest about the Browns\u2019 mentor controversy, and how his attitude isn\u2019t nearly as hostile as some fans have taken it.<\/p>\n

\u201cListen, everybody wants to have good relationships and be a good teammate, or that\u2019s the expectation at least,\u201d Flacco said. \u201cI think you want a bunch of players that have that mindset\u2014it\u2019s about the team and it\u2019s about having good relationships, and freaking pushing people.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI think that is important to do. And in order to have those relationships and keep the team first, you have to have a bunch of guys that want to play football. That\u2019s what it comes down to. Being a mentor and coming out and just kind of going along for the ride isn\u2019t getting me off my couch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clearly, Flacco would much prefer to use teach tape from 2025 games to show the rookies how it\u2019s done. And while both Gabriel and Sanders will likely make decent arguments to play in the coming months, Flacco has earned the benefit of the doubt.<\/p>\n

In 2023, Flacco\u2019s hot streak took the Browns from destitution to competition, landing them in the AFC Wild Card Round by being just enough on offense. This year\u2019s defense isn\u2019t quite as potent, and the expectations certainly won\u2019t be as high. But Flacco has been around the block several times now, toeing the line between competent starter and second-string mentor.<\/p>\n

“I want to play football,” Flacco said. “But also, I want to be a really good teammate, I really do. I enjoy being in that locker room, and just being around the guys. I think that\u2019s all a part of it. I\u2019ve talked about how it\u2019s not necessarily my job, but at the same time, I\u2019m also not gonna shy away from doing those things. I\u2019m not worried about teaching guys and having that come back and bite me. Yeah, you got questions and you want answers, ‘Yeah, come ask me, man.'”<\/p>\n

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Flacco isn\u2019t withholding information from his younger counterparts. This isn\u2019t the kind of adversarial relationship that defined the Green Bay Packers\u2019 transition two decades ago. But there\u2019s a difference between accepting one\u2019s fate as a backup and competing while teaching at the same time.<\/p>\n

Flacco would much prefer the latter. It seems the rest of the room is fine with that, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a good, fun group. It\u2019s the offseason. Like, today, we had a 15-minute meeting, we\u2019re in there telling stories and laughing. You can tell, it\u2019s a bunch of guys that want to play football, but are also able to go in there and have fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related: Joe Flacco Called ‘Stupid’ By ESPN For Mentorship Take On Browns<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: Browns’ Flacco Criticized for Approach to Young Quarterbacks<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Jun 3, 2025, where it first appeared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Flacco Responds to Browns’ Mentor Headlines originally appeared on Athlon Sports. The Cleveland Browns are never too far…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99851,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2054],"tags":[86,85,54,2337,563,1033,7,345,562,570,6,4266,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-99850","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-browns","8":"tag-browns","9":"tag-cleveland","10":"tag-cleveland-browns","11":"tag-clevelandbrowns","12":"tag-deshaun-watson","13":"tag-dillon-gabriel","14":"tag-football","15":"tag-green-bay-packers","16":"tag-joe-flacco","17":"tag-kenny-pickett","18":"tag-nfl","19":"tag-organized-team-activities","20":"tag-shedeur-sanders"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114617683830745779","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}