Joe Flacco‘s Browns stay has doubled as a late-career re-emergence. The 16th-year veteran, despite spending more than half the season out of the NFL, has given the Browns a solid option amid the team’s difficult season at the quarterback position.

To start Flacco’s tenure, the Browns parked him on their practice squad. They kept the ex-Ravens mainstay there in Week 12, when Dorian Thompson-Robinson and P.J. Walker played during a loss to the Broncos, but changed up their starting lineup once again a week later. Flacco has started the past three Browns games, but only one of those — Week 15 against the Bears — came with the former Super Bowl MVP a part of Cleveland’s 53-man roster.

Amid their spree of QB transactions since trading for Deshaun Watson, the Browns made Flacco a gameday elevation ahead of games against the Rams and Jaguars. During a season featuring a number of significant quarterback injuries, Flacco’s agent said (via NBC Sports’ Peter King) two or three teams attempted to sign his client off Cleveland’s practice squad.

The Browns signed Flacco to their 53-man roster last week, giving him some incentives based on regular-season and postseason wins. Flacco cashed in a $75K incentive for leading the Browns to a comeback win over the Bears. Upon being signed to the Browns’ 53-man roster, Flacco confirmed he was not interested in leaving. Players can be poached from other teams’ P-squads, with the club that signs the player forced to keep him on the active roster for three weeks. But P-squad cogs can also decline such overtures, as Broncos P-squad QB Ben DiNucci did when the Saints extended an active-roster offer earlier this season.

Flacco seeking stability makes sense. After his Ravens run ended via a 2019 trade to the Broncos, he has been in a number of offensive systems. The Delaware alum left the Jets for the Eagles in 2021, but after Gardner Minshew became available in trades that summer, Philadelphia made Flacco expendable. When Flacco returned to the Jets via an in-season trade, a new OC — Mike LaFleur — was in charge. Flacco reached out about returning to the Jets, who had transitioned to Nathaniel Hackett as their play-caller, this year but did not generate interest from his former team. It is not known if the Jets, amid another run of QB struggles, reached out to Flacco while he was on the Browns’ taxi squad.

Since expressing interest in playing next season, Flacco has perhaps generated his most momentum since his Baltimore days. He is 2-1 as the Browns’ starter, piloting the team to wins despite a depleted offensive line. The Browns do not exactly have a top-tier QB situation right now, but the 9-5 team is on solid ground in a crowded AFC wild-card race thanks largely to Flacco.