The Denver Broncos have turned over the keys to their franchise to Drew Lock, which puts backup quarterback Joe Flacco in a tough situation. Flacco's season was shut down because of a neck injury and there is a chance it's something that might require surgery. Flacco did say if he does continue to play he is willing to be the backup to Lock and that is the best option for him at this point.
Flacco does have two years left in his contract and if the team were to release him before next season they would have $13.6 million in dead cap space. That makes it hard to imagine the team is willing to release him and take that on.
When John Elway was asked about Joe Flacco being on the team next season, he wouldn't commit to it and said it's something the team would re-evaluate in the coming months.
“We haven’t gotten into that yet, but we’ll look at that and see what’s best,” Elway said, via the Broncos Wire. “Obviously, we’re going to take some time [to make a decision]. This year we’ll do it a little bit different than we’ve done in the past. We’re going to wait for our own team evaluations for a month. We’re going to get away from it.
“The coaches will look at it. The personnel side will look at it, get together early February and really get a good objective view of what our team’s going to look like next year and what we need to do. I think that’s why we’ll take the time and evaluate everything. Obviously, Joe will be one of those that we’ll look at and we’ll see his situation.”
The Broncos could also try to trade him, but they would probably have to attach some big draft capital to get the contract off of their hands. A team with cap space could decide to take him on, but even that feels like a long shot.
At this point, he needs to accept that he is a backup, take his big paycheck every week, and try to help develop Lock. There isn't a team that Flacco could go to and probably start next season, so this is something he needs to be accepting of.
Unless Drew Lock goes down with an injury, Joe Flacco has probably made his last start. The big question now is did he do enough to become a Hall of Famer?