Less than a month after undergoing a neck procedure, Joe Flacco has found employment.
Flacco has agreed to a one-year deal with the New York Jets, NFL Network's Mike Garafolo reported. The deal will pay Flacco $1.5 million and includes another $3 million in incentives, Garafolo added.
Flacco underwent a 45-minute disc repair in early April, NFL Network's Tom Pelissero reported in early May. He's on schedule to be cleared sometime between late August to mid-September, Pelissero added at the time.
Flacco spent 2019 in Denver, where he was acquired via trade to be the starter but suffered a neck injury that robbed him of the second half of his season and any chance to stick around with the Broncos.
Jets general manager Joe Douglas, who spent 14 seasons as a Ravens scout, is bringing along Baltimore's former franchise quarterback as an ideally reliable backup to Sam Darnold.
Douglas was a key member of the Ravens' personnel department who fought for Flacco during a draft process that eventually led to Baltimore taking Flacco with the 18th-overall pick, per NFL Network's Daniel Jeremiah.
Flacco's signing is an improvement over where the Jets were at this time last season, when they had Trevor Siemian and Luke Falk as the team's backups to Darnold.
Both were called into action almost immediately when Darnold came down with mononucleosis and missed a month of action, essentially torpedoing the team's chances before they even got out of the gate.
With Flacco on the team, the Jets can at least take solace in the fact that a veteran with experience exists in case of emergency. Flacco is far from the Super Bowl MVP he was back in 2013,
but he might still have enough in the tank to help the Jets in a time of need. His experience should be valuable to a still-developing Darnold, too.
