Browns Preview 2025: Joe Flacco's still got the technique — and hopefully a little more left in the tank

Joe Flacco's throwing motion has earned him a bunch of victories, a Super Bowl MVP and approximately $200 million. It's one of the primary reasons he's the starting quarterback for the Browns at 40 years old.Once upon a time Flacco worried a coach would try to change it. As classic as it looks, and as well as it's aged, the delivery isn't as over the top as some coaches would prefer, especially when Flacco was coming up through the ranks."I've always been, even in baseball, I was probably more of a three-quarters guy," Flacco told The Chronicle-Telegram last week. "Not that it was low, but it was lower. And especially 20 years ago, 30 years ago, I was always fearful of somebody coming in here and wanting to change how I threw a little bit."But I definitely would've been hardheaded and resistant to it. I don't know how that would've went. Thankfully, nobody ever really did try to do that."Looking back, the idea sounds preposterous. Watching Flacco fling it for a decade with the Ravens, at the end of 2023 with the Browns and heading into this season, it's obvious throwing professionally was what he was meant to do."He throws a very pretty ball," then-Browns receiver Amari Cooper said in 2023 after Flacco was signed off his couch in November. "I don't know if it's intentional or what, but when he drops back and he lets it go, the whole motion is like poetry in motion. It looks good."Flacco was more than good that December, passing for 300 yards in each of four straight victories that earned the Browns a spot in the playoffs for the second time in four years. He energized and united a fan base exhausted and divided by the trade for Deshaun Watson and everything that followed.The Browns recommitted to Watson for 2024 and let Flacco leave in free agency. He spent the season with the Colts, starting six games.The Browns and Flacco went back to the future this year.Jerry Jeudy, the No. 1 receiver this season, feels the same way Cooper did."Joe been in the league for a long time obviously, so he know where to put the balls, he know how the receivers like the balls and he throws a great ball for sure," Jeudy said.ORIGIN STORYThe right arm cocks with his elbow a bit below the armpit and the ball between 10 and 11 on a clock as the defense looks at him. He pulls the ball behind his helmet before stepping into the throw and ripping it from next to the earhole.The throw doesn't look rushed, or forced. Yet it comes out in a tight spiral and with velocity."I am proud of how I throw the ball," Flacco said. "But at the same time, how much of it wasn't even in my control? I was just blessed to be able to do it a little bit. But, yeah, I'm proud that I feel like I still maintained really all that I have ever had."Quarterbacks coach Bill Musgrave said Flacco has a top-tier NFL arm despite only Pittsburgh's Aaron Rodgers being older."He still, of course, is a complete 6-foot-6 flamethrower," Musgrave said. "I would say he's definitely elite, definitely top five, top 10."The motion has stayed basically the same since Flacco was a kid."As your body changes and as you get stronger, little things change," he said. "But it feels very similar to how I've always done it."He's been doing it so long, Flacco chuckled when asked how he learned to throw. The answer wasn't much different than with many kids — he threw a lot with his dad and brothers."I'm sure my dad would probably take some credit for it, but we grew up playing baseball and my dad was a football and baseball player, so we always kind of knew we wanted to play football and baseball," he said. "My dad could throw a little bit, but my mom's side of the family, my grandfather and some of my uncles, they know how to throw a ball pretty well."Obviously you get some of it naturally, and I think that combined with playing baseball and just throwing the ball a lot, having a ball in my hands a lot as a kid, I think you just naturally develop it. And I think the younger you can do it, then the more it becomes muscle memory and it turns into what it is now."Flacco has five kids and threw to them after a couple of training camp practices this summer. Did they get the throwing gene from Dad?"It'll be interesting to see," he said. "They all throw decent at this point. There seems to be one or two that probably throw a little bit better than the others, but that's probably similar to how it was with my siblings. We all throw a ball well, and then it's just different levels."Flacco's career is testament.He's 105-86 as a starter in the regular season with 45,697 yards, 257 touchdowns, 162 interceptions and an 84.4 passer rating. He won a Super Bowl during the 2012 season with the Ravens and was named MVP of the title game.He doesn't recall the first time someone praised his passing but knows it happened."You remember throwing a football in gym class as a young kid and you could see your teachers saying that's a little bit different," he said.A FAN, TOOFlacco has long been an admirer of other throwers. That journey began as a kid watching tape of Dan Marino and continues with peers."You watch Tom Brady, I think sometimes people want to say, 'oh, he didn't have the arm strength,' but whatever he did, he had arm strength at 45 years old," Flacco said. "He definitely, maybe at some point in his career got a little bit stronger and got better at that part of it, but he's always been able to throw a ball well. And then Aaron throws the ball really well. Matthew (Stafford) throws the ball really well."Brady and Stafford are in the mode of the classic pocket passer like Flacco. Rodgers, 41, is a four-time MVP, future Hall of Famer and all-time thrower — but his style is a bit different."I feel like Aaron especially, you didn't know much about him probably in college because he was with (Cal coach Jeff) Tedford and he was holding the ball a little bit different," Flacco said. "I think when he got to Green Bay and he watched and he was there with (Brett) Favre for a few years, I think he adopted a little bit what Favre did. It's different, but there's similarities in how they do it."Musgrave has probably known Flacco longer than anyone in the Browns organization. He recruited Flacco to the University of Virginia out of Audubon High School in New Jersey."They were one of the bigger schools. I remember him a lot actually," Flacco said. "The fact that he came up from there and I went on a junior day visit down in Virginia."Flacco chose Pitt before transferring to Delaware. Not before Musgrave watched him pitch for Audubon's baseball team."He probably sat in the bleachers with my dad or in left field or right field with my dad or wherever he was at the time," Flacco said.He said he topped out in the mid-80s mph."I threw a ball pretty well in baseball," he said. "Off of a mound I threw it OK. I wouldn't say I threw it great."I wanted to play baseball. I enjoyed playing baseball. I don't think my high school baseball career probably went as well as my football. I still had baseball in my mind. But I think by the time I was done with high school, football had taken over to the point where I knew that was probably what I was going to be focused in."The mechanics of his motion traveled from the gridiron to the diamond."There is differences, but ultimately the basics of it are very similar," Flacco said.ROUTINE MAINTENANCEWhen Flacco was announced as the starter two-plus weeks ago, many of the questions were about holding the job at his age. He'll be the 18th quarterback in NFL history to start after turning 40, which he did in January.In addition to feeling good physically, he talked about clearing the mental hurdle of boredom and monotony after doing something for so long."When you can get into that 10-year area, there is a part of your brain that wants to make it, 'oh, I'm doing this again?' And I think that I've been in a good position the last few years to get over that mindset," he said.When asked about it last week, Flacco said boredom might not have been the correct word."But things become a job and you forget how fortunate you are," he said. "And if you don't have a routine to keep you in the moment, then you can drift here and there. And you got to be able to have that routine to pull you in."He remembers the veterans when he was younger harping on finding a routine, not knowing what they meant but listening anyway."And maybe it's not perfect right away, but the fact that you have that in your head I think helps you at least be aware that you should be thinking about what you should be doing," Flacco said. "But I think just going through it, there's times where you realize, listen, everything's not always going to be the best thing in the world, and you have to be able to get out of your head in those moments. And then it just naturally keeps you in the moment and keeps your mind away from wandering to all the other thoughts that you don't really want to have."The routine is all-encompassing. From when and how to watch film to practicing taking snaps from center to the footwork drills he's done a million times."Everything. Everything," Flacco said. "There's always a little piece of you that's on your shoulder telling you like: 'Oh, you're good here. You're good there.' You're not. And having something to fall back on that you've done and built up over the years, it allows you to not even let those thoughts creep in. And then if they happen to creep in here and there, well, you just stay the course and all of a sudden you don't have them anymore."And all of it's connected to throwing."The simple stuff can be the stuff that you want to forget about, but then at the same time, if you just focus on the simple stuff, then you'll get right back in the zone and everything will take care of itself," he said.The job of a quarterback is so much more than throwing. He must lead, make smart decisions, be physically tough and not crumble under pressure.But throwing matters."It's important because in the NFL, you're not going to have all the room in the world every single time you drop back," Flacco said. "So to be able to throw off of different platforms and with your feet out of place or in place, all those different things. The fact that I am a good thrower of the football, I think it allows me to not have perfect conditions and still be able to deliver the same type of ball that I would like to deliver. I think that's the biggest part of it in terms of how it actually translates to the NFL game."He said quarterbacks can get away with an average arm if they're really good at other things, also noting the guys with the most powerful arms aren't necessarily the best throwers."Sometimes you have a really big, strong arm, but all you like to do is throw it deep and throw it hard," Flacco said. "There's something to being a good thrower of a ball where you can put different paces on it and different arcs and different things like that and be accurate. There's more to it than just throwing a ball hard and far. I could always throw a ball pretty far, but I kind of prided myself more on just where I could put it."Flacco carries himself with confidence. Whether it's his stature or resume, he doesn't seem concerned with impressing others.The same has been true for his right arm."I feel like I've always had a pretty big arm, but I've not been concerned about trying to show it," he said. "I think I've been at an advantage. I don't think people ever questioned how strong my arm was, just because it was. So I didn't have to go out to certain things and feel like I had to overthrow balls. I felt like I could just throw naturally and people just assumed I had a pretty strong arm because I was a little bit taller. I did have a decently strong arm, and I was then able to not get in my head so much about trying to throw the ball hard and I learned how to throw the ball well."And just keeps doing it.The post Browns Preview 2025: Joe Flacco's still got the technique — and hopefully a little more left in the tank first appeared on BrownsZone with Scott Petrak.