Browns thriving after taking Joe Flacco risk everyone else avoided: ‘Don’t care if he’s 100 years old’

Father knew best, better than all the NFL teams who decided to chase a playoff berth with backup quarterbacks other than good old Joe Flacco.

“We know he’s very capable,” Stephen Flacco told Serby Says. “People call him old, but I’m going to tell you, he’s bigger, stronger, moves better than people give him credit for, than most of the guys that play that position, I don’t care if he’s 100 years old.”

Joe Flacco isn’t 100 years old — he turns just 39 next month — but he has been playing Forever Young since showing up as a godsend for the 9-5 Cleveland Browns, a franchise that has made two playoff appearances since 2002 and sold their souls to guarantee Deshaun Watson a financially reckless contract bordering on insanity.

“It’s so huge for him to be able to win for that organization and the city up there,” Stephen Flacco said. “It’s gigantic. Especially because they’re actually relevant, and they haven’t been for so long. We would just love for him to be a part of a winning operation up there. That would be awesome.”

Cool Joe, Super Bowl XLVII MVP with the Ravens, remains the alpha male in the room after all these years.

“Joe can throw the ball around the football field like nobody’s business,” Stephen said. “He knows what he’s doing, he’s almost 6-7, 250-some pounds. He’s a force of nature, man.”

And yet, as Aaron Rodgers ruptured his Achilles on Opening Night, as starting quarterbacks began dropping like flies, Joe Flacco’s cell phone did not ring. He was a man without a team in his Audubon, N.J., hometown.

“He was trucking his kids around a lot,” Stephen said. “He was doing Mr. Mom stuff, you know?

He was spending Sundays watching NFL football with his parents and siblings and family.

“Miserable watching games with us on Sunday,” Stephen said. “My wife cooks and we’re all here yelling at the TV.”

They’ll be yelling at the TV on Sunday when Joe Flacco (seven touchdowns, five interceptions) attempts to lead the Browns to a third straight win in Houston — after outdueling Trevor Lawrence in Week 14 then throwing for 212 yards in the fourth quarter against the Bears last week.

“If I had hair, I’d have pulled all my hair out watching those two games,” Stephen said, and laughed.

Jets fans are pulling their hair out apoplectic today that GM Joe Douglas never turned to Joe Flacco after Rodgers was lost for the season after four plays.

“I thought there was a chance they might come to that conclusion, yeah,” Stephen said. “They weren’t playing with the same offensive coordinator, obviously, but I would also argue does it really matter? ’Because he never played for the Browns operation either, and he was in there Week 1 [Dec. 3] looking like he knew what he was doing.”

It didn’t matter that Douglas had scouted Flacco before the Ravens drafted him in the first round in 2008. What mattered more, even when Flacco would be Jets backup quarterback in 2022, was that Douglas had drafted Zach Wilson with the second-overall pick in 2021. Wilson’s athleticism and mobility could get him out of harm’s way, and he was the future. Case closed.

“I would say we were disappointed, not necessarily surprised,” Stephen Flacco said. “It would have been different if Zach wasn’t the second pick in the draft.”

But the Jets weren’t the only ones who had apparently forgotten that Joe Flacco hadn’t forgotten how to play quarterback.

“The bigger question would be why wasn’t he on anybody else’s team?” Stephen said.

Jets players are looking forward to playing against Joe Flacco on Thursday night in Cleveland. He left an indelible impression on his former teammates.

“When he was here even in Christmas time, I seen him give everybody money, guys who may not make as much money, Joe was giving out, I don’t even know how much money it was, but way more money than probably I make,” John Franklin Myers said, and laughed.

Santa Flacco. “He was amazing, man,” Quinnen Williams told Serby Says. “He was my lockermate, he taught me so much stuff, man. I love him as a friend. I love him as a teammate. He’s a phenomenal quarterback, Hall of Fame quarterback.

“He used to tell me stories about how [the Ravens] defense with Ray Lewis and Ed Reed and all those guys came to work every single day, and he just motivated me every single day to be the player that I am to this day to keep going, man, to be positive. He’d just tell me so much stuff about that Baltimore team, that Baltimore defense that motivated me still to this day that I will never forget, man. Every single day was a game day.

“Having a guy like him in your locker room, with so much experience and so much knowledge, is phenomenal. So I know the guys at Cleveland are soaking everything he got to offer, man. We used to laugh all the time about if I ever pay him and stuff like that, so I get a chance to play him, it’s going to be super funny and super cool. I hope he just understands that this is a business. He’s a GOAT, man, that’s one of my great friends, man, still talk to him to this day.”

Flacco started the 2022 season for Robert Saleh’s Jets while Wilson was rehabbing a knee injury. He led a miracle 31-30 comeback win in the last 1:22 — at Cleveland — when he hit Corey Davis with a 66-yard TD, then, following a successful on-field kick, he found Garrett Wilson with a 15-yard TD pass with 23 seconds left.

“Flacco’s ‘the man,’ ” Garrett Wilson told Serby Says. “He’s very experienced, seen it all, and because of that, not a lot is gonna throw him off, man, he’s a great player. Throws a friendly ball, and not to mention just a good dude to be around, funny dude.”

Garrett Wilson had eight catches for 102 yards and two TDs that day.

“My best moment, for sure,” he said.

C.J. Mosley played five years in Baltimore with Flacco before they were Jets teammates.

“If he has time in the pocket, he still has one of the best arms throwing that deep ball and throwing the outside route,” Mosley said.

Stephen Flacco intends on making the seven-hour drive to Cleveland for “Thursday Night Football” when they face the Jets next week. Joe Flacco, father of five, is living in a hotel, but no complaints.

“His kids are really starting to understand and enjoy what’s going on, so being a part of that also adds a little something to it,” Stephen said.

In the AFC North, the Bengals are pinning their hopes on Jake Browning. The Steelers are turning to Mason Rudolph. The Browns gladly will take their chances with Pro Flacco.