Eagles beat writers weigh in on the signing of quarterback Joe Flacco

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Meh. That was my initial reaction when it was reported that Joe Flacco was visiting the Eagles, and it remained my reaction after they signed the veteran quarterback to a one-year contract on Tuesday. I know that others are up in arms about the price. Flacco will earn $3.5 million -- all of which is guaranteed -- with the potential to earn upwards of $7.5 million in play-time incentives. That’s a $2 million raise for the 36-year-old. Flacco went 0-4 as a starter with an 80.6 passer rating for the New York Jets last season, so it’s not like he earned more money. But he was coming off neck surgery a year ago and wasn’t available until Week 3.

The Eagles are paying more for the Flacco who started 11 seasons for the Ravens and won a Super Bowl in 2012. Did they overpay based on his recent performances, age, and market value? Probably. Jacoby Brissett signed with the Dolphins for $5 million, while Mitch Trubisky signed with the Bills for $2.5 million. An argument could be made for going after either of those guys rather than Flacco. The 49ers also had Flacco in for a visit, but they let him leave, and I wonder if they were prepared to make an offer for a quarterback who, on the surface, wouldn’t seem a fit for Kyle Shanahan’s offense.

Flacco, a South Jersey native, was brought to Philly to be a backup/mentor for Jalen Hurts or a rookie to be named later. Forget any team spin about competition. Flacco’s a fine backup, but for a rebuilding team, I’m not sure he makes sense. Unless Jeffrey Lurie changed his mind, the Eagles understand that they are a franchise in transition. Yeah, sure, the NFC East may be there to be won, but the bones of the squad suggest they are still a year, two or more away from competing for a title. So if Hurts gets hurt, does it really matter if Flacco is marginally more competent than, say, Matt Barkley or Nate Sudfeld? He wasn’t terrible in place of Sam Darnold last season, but the Jets were brutal and there was little he could do to overcome that.

As for the mentorship part, Flacco wasn’t exactly onboard with playing that role to Lamar Jackson in Baltimore and Drew Lock in Denver. He had little choice in New York and the same applies here, but I’m not sure how much he can assist Hurts, who doesn’t really need help in off-the-field matters. On the field, it’s not like Flacco has experience in Sirianni’s offense or is stylistically similar to the second-year quarterback. So I think this signing has more to do with Flacco being at the ready in case of emergency, and depending upon the point of view, that could either help the Eagles win a few games and sneak into the playoffs or pointlessly try to win meaningless games.

The Eagles haven’t been shy about overpaying for backups before. Quarterbacks get hurt and they’ve had their share over the years. They did well with Nick Foles, not so well with Chase Daniel, and terribly with Hurts -- as it related to Carson Wentz. My guess is that Flacco will fall somewhere in the middle. Meh.

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I’m OK with this signing. Maybe not as OK with it as the people in Audubon, N.J.. But we’re talking about the backup quarterback job on a rebuilding team here.

I definitely like Flacco better than some of the other free-agent quarterback dreck that’s still on the market, such as ex-Eagle Sudfeld, Barkley, Daniel, and Colt McCoy.

Would I have preferred a more mobile guy backing up Hurts, like Tyrod Taylor or Brissett? Yeah. But for a number of reasons, including salary cap space and a desire to give Hurts every opportunity to succeed in 2021, they opted for the 36-year-old Flacco.

Flacco’s best days are well behind him, but he does give the Eagles a capable been-there-done-that backup with 175 starts on his resume, which is good.

Another good thing is that if something did happen to Hurts, Flacco will have the benefit of a very good offensive line in front of him, assuming the bodies don’t start to fall like they did last year when the Eagles used an NFL-record 14 different offensive line combinations.

Flacco isn’t going to beat people with his legs like Hurts can. He has just 853 rushing yards in 13 seasons. Since 2015, he has 96 carries in 63 starts.

But he knows how to avoid negative plays. Over the last seven years, he’s been sacked just once every 21.5 pass plays. Tom Brady has averaged one every 21.3 pass plays in his career.

I don’t know what kind of mentor Flacco is going to be. But as long as he’s OK with a year-long role as Hurts’ understudy – and clearly he is or he wouldn’t have signed with the Eagles – then everything should be fine.

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The Eagles were always going to pursue a veteran backup quarterback this free agency period, and Flacco was one of the few decent options still available. They didn’t have the cap space to pursue some of the bigger names like Taylor, Brissett, or Ryan Fitzpatrick, all of whom signed early in free agency for more money than Flacco.

Still, this feels like a dubious use of resources on a position that shouldn’t be as important next season as it has been in years past.

I get it, the Eagles won a Super Bowl with a backup quarterback in 2017, made a playoff run the following year with one, and convinced themselves they’d have made another if not for McCown’s 40-year-old hamstring giving out on him in the wild-card round in 2019. That perfectly explains why the team’s front office values the backup quarterback position so highly, but this team is undergoing a rebuild by most accounts.

Assuming Hurts is the starter next year, the Eagles shouldn’t be looking to tread water with a backup if he gets injured. Instead, they should be doing what they did against Washington in the season finale last year: Ensuring they get the best draft position possible.

That’s not even exploring whether Flacco is capable of helping them tread water. As mentioned above, he was coming off a major injury and struggled with the Jets last year. To be fair, most quarterbacks would’ve struggled in that situation.

It’s possible the Eagles are willing to pay the premium to have Flacco around as a culture guy, even if he’s not a quality backup, but that was a hefty price to do so for a team in salary cap hell. McCown had a similar role two seasons ago and only signed for $2 million, and he had to get lured out of retirement.

If Flacco never touches the field and provides Hurts or a rookie quarterback invaluable guidance, then it will work out. It’s just a lot to pay for a team operating with such little salary cap space.

» READ MORE: The Eagles were once again one of the most injury-plagued teams in the NFL in 2020 | Early Birds

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I entered this fray thinking I would go with “thumbs sideways,” but after seeing that Jeff and Domo went that route, and EJ went all “death to Flacco” in his turn at bat, I decided to speak up for my South Jersey neighbor.

In Hurts, the Eagles have a second-year starting quarterback with four NFL starts to his credit. Flacco, at 36, is older than 35-year-old offensive coordinator Shane Steichen and 34-year-old quarterbacks coach Brian Johnson.

In 2013, when Flacco was the reigning Super Bowl MVP, in his sixth NFL season, Steichen was in his first season as an offensive quality control coach with the Browns. Johnson was offensive coordinator at Utah; the Eagles just gave him his first NFL job.

The Eagles need Flacco’s experience, his 175 regular-season starts at quarterback. They spent more on a backup than we’d envisioned, but if you look at the market this year, they didn’t get bamboozled. You can shake your head over Flacco’s stats over the past two seasons in Denver and with the Jets, but those were bad teams with much worse offensive lines than the Eagles hope to field, assuming key figures are healthy this year.

If Flacco plays, I expect him to play like an experienced backup -- to be able to run the offense, take what’s given. He won’t put the team on his shoulders, the way he did at times for the Ravens in the playoffs after the 2012 season. If he could still do that, he’d be signing a much bigger contract to be someone’s starter.

I don’t think signing Flacco makes the 2021 Eagles a good team, or anything, but this was something they had to do, with Hurts their only QB under contract. The idea that if Hurts goes down, you don’t need a functioning quarterback because it’s a rebuilding year anyway is not realistic. The guys playing around the QB wouldn’t look at it that way. They wouldn’t learn or grow with a less-than-functional quarterback taking the reins. They wouldn’t want to risk injury just to get blown out every week.

Plus, sometimes my walks with the dog venture into Joe’s hometown of Audubon, and those people look pretty tough. I’m staying on their good side.

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