Joe Flacco’s rough start to the 2025 season reached another low point on Sunday, when the Browns lost 34–10 to the Detroit Lions.
Advertisement
The 40-year-old veteran quarterback completed just 16 of 34 passes for 184 yards with two interceptions, while posting a dreadful 39.3 passer rating. There was also a costly strip-sack by Aidan Hutchinson and another near fumble saved only by a penalty.
Understandably, questions over Flacco’s starting job are now at an all-time high, as it looks like with every passing week, the QB is getting worse.
Across four weeks, Flacco has 815 passing yards (18th in the NFL), just two touchdowns (tied 33rd), a league-high six interceptions, and a QBR of 27.6, dead last among quarterbacks. For a team boasting a championship-level defense, this offensive production by the quarterback has been alarmingly inept.
Now, even one of Flacco’s peers from the 2008 draft class is openly calling for change. Former Giants DE Leger Douzable, who entered the league the same year Flacco was taken 18th overall by the Ravens, didn’t mince words about the veteran’s latest mistakes.
“When he threw that interception on a throwaway… what are you doing? You’ve been in the league entirely too long to make mistakes like that,” Douzable said, adding that Lions safety Kerby Joseph’s easy pick looked “almost like a punt return.”
For Douzable, the Browns’ struggles go beyond their starting QB’s mistakes. They cut to the heart of the team’s quarterback evaluation.
GM Andrew Berry drafted Dillon Gabriel in the third round and Shedeur Sanders in the fifth, yet both remain buried behind Flacco. Douzable says this approach makes little sense for a franchise with two first-round picks in next year’s draft.
“It’s time,” Douzable declared. “Why not see what these young guys have? Because we’re going to be in a position with two first-round picks to potentially go get our guy next year if we don’t have that current guy in the locker room. But the only way we can find out… is if the young guys play,” the analyst argued.
Douzable also specifically pointed to Gabriel’s efficient preseason as proof that he deserves the first crack at the job:
“I roll him out… If we have 14 games left or 13 games left, give them six and seven games apiece. If one quarterback goes out there and plays really well, you stay with the hot hand. If he struggles like most rookies do, why don’t you see what the other rookie has as well?”
View this post on Instagram
For now, HC Kevin Stefanski has resisted publicly committing to a quarterback change, choosing instead to spread the blame across the offense. But with Flacco’s turnovers directly gifting the Lions 17 points, the calls for youth are only going to grow louder, especially when rookies like Sanders have been vocal about their starting prospects.
So Douzable’s message was clear: if Cleveland truly wants to find its quarterback of the future, the answers won’t come from a veteran stuck in the past.
At 1-3, a couple more losses would really put an end to the team’s hopes for a postseason berth. Perhaps after that, it might be a good time to test out the rookies. Regardless, something has to change because the Browns’ offense right now is just not clicking with Joe Flacco.
