Three weeks left til the NFL’s summer break, and still plenty to get to in The MMQB Takeaways, which are loaded up for this first Monday in June …
Joe Flacco
I love Joe Flacco’s perspective. The Cleveland Browns’ quarterback and I talked on Thursday afternoon. We hit a bunch of topics related to the team, and the competition at his position, and the shifts in the coaching staff he’s back with.
But what was easily my overriding thought coming out of the phone call was how the grizzled vet—heading into his 18th season and now in his 40s—was 100% at ease.
At ease with the quarterback derby. At ease with his team. At ease, most of all, with himself.
“Listen, I’ve been through enough in my career where I’ve not had football, or I’ve not been on the field,” he said. “And when you get back on the field, I think the taste in your mouth, and just [remembering] that feeling that you get when you’re watching other people do things, it really makes you appreciate being out there. And being able to appreciate it without having to win every single game.
“It really takes you back to when you were that 10-year-old kid and you had the dream of playing in the NFL. I don’t know, maybe sometimes the dream was super specific, winning a bunch of Super Bowls and all those things. But ultimately the dream was playing in the NFL. So I think I’ve kind of been reminded of that the last few years, that, Man, I’m in the NFL.”
Suffice it to say, Flacco isn’t going to complain about his lot in NFL life these days.
It’s a complicated lot, to be sure.
His first stint with the Browns came in 2023. And while it only lasted two months, Flacco did enough to get that Cleveland team to the playoffs, and he won over the locker room to a degree where the Browns decided not to bring him back because they worried it’d make things uncomfortable for their anointed franchise guy, Deshaun Watson. So in 2024, Flacco went to Indianapolis, the Browns collapsed, and Watson got hurt.
Now, Flacco is back, competing with Kenny Pickett, Shedeur Sanders and Dillon Gabriel for the starting job. The timing of Watson’s return remains a moving target. But the setting for all this is different—Flacco’s coming in with a real shot to be the guy, something he really hasn’t had at this point in the calendar since his single season as Denver Broncos starter in 2019.
So, again, there’s a lot to sort through. But underneath all of it, that would be another specific thing that Flacco is awfully grateful for.
“The last few years of my career I’ve been going into situations where I’m, at some point, hoping to play, or optimistic about the fact that if I do play, I’m doing it with a good team,” Flacco said. “I haven’t really gone into the year with a possibility of being the guy to start the season. I just think this year, this situation is giving me the ability to make that a reality. That’s the difference.”
As such, Flacco no longer views any of these as things he “has” to do. They’re things, almost two decades after he was drafted, that he “gets” to do. And with that perspective, he and I covered plenty over about 20 minutes.
Some highlights from our World According to Joe talk …
• Flacco said to me during the season last year that he figured his arm would be good until he’s 50. I wanted to ask him again about that—and whether he feels like he’s lost much. His answer reminded me, in a lot of ways, of how Tom Brady used to answer these questions, with confidence that the advantages he keeps gaining from experience tend to outpace any physical losses that age is incurring on him.
“There obviously are some things that change a little bit, after you hit your peak, right around 30 years old,” Flacco said. “But honestly, it’s definitely a myth that you can’t continue to get stronger, and continue to keep some of that athleticism, and do all those things. And I think I’ve only gained knowledge. And not only have I gained knowledge, but I think I’ve gained a different perspective on things and it’s allowed me to go out and play more relaxed, to let myself just go out there and play.
“There are a lot of positives to playing a lot of football, and being around the league a long time, where if you can keep yourself healthy and keep yourself in good shape, yeah, maybe it’s not quite what it was when you were 28 years old, but it’s not as big a dropoff as people think. I think you end up gaining more than you lose if you can stay on top of that stuff.”
• On the Browns-specific stuff, Flacco respectfully held his cards close to the vest. He said that the Kevin Stefanski offense he left after 2023 still has “the same principles, with a little bit of a new mindset, and some new terminology” that have come with new coordinator Tommy Rees. And on Pickett, Sanders and Gabriel, he didn’t want to say much specifically about them individually, because “I’d feel like I was slighting one guy over the other.”
But he did then add, “It’s a good, fun group. It’s the offseason. Like, today, we had a 15-minute meeting, we’re in there telling stories and laughing. You can tell, it’s a bunch of guys that want to play football, but are also able to go in there and have fun.”
And when I asked at what point the competition had to be narrowed down, Flacco laughed, and again played coy, saying, “You’d have to ask Kevin that. I probably have an answer for you, but with my job [being what it is] … who cares? If I get five reps, that’s what I get. They better be the five greatest reps you’ve ever seen.”
• While Flacco was joking there, he did concede there’s an element of truth in that, too, where the coaches are doing their best to level the competition, but simply have to do a little more to ramp up the younger quarterbacks—“It is my 18th year, and I think at this time of the year, it’s not necessarily a priority to get me the most reps.”
And that plays back into the larger point Flacco made with the Cleveland media last week, one he’s made before, on his role as a mentor to Sanders and Gabriel. It was never, by the way, intended to imply he’d be unwilling to help. More so, it was explaining his priorities.
“Listen, everybody wants to have good relationships and be a good teammate, or that’s the expectation at least,” he said. “I think you want a bunch of players that have that mindset—it’s about the team and it’s about having good relationships, and freaking pushing people. I think that is important to do. And in order to have those relationships and keep the team first, you have to have a bunch of guys that want to play football. That’s what it comes down to. Being a mentor and coming out and just kind of going along for the ride isn’t getting me off my couch.
“I want to play football. But also, I want to be a really good teammate, I really do. I enjoy being in that locker room, and just being around the guys. I think that’s all a part of it. I’ve talked about how it’s not necessarily my job, but at the same time, I’m also not gonna shy away from doing those things. I’m not worried about teaching guys and having that come back and bite me. Yeah, you got questions and you want answers, Yeah, come ask me, man.”
The confidence Flacco has to give Pickett, Sanders and Gabriel the tools to beat him out also illustrates a simple belief he has—that it’s simply not going to happen. That he’s the best quarterback for the Browns. And that, believe it or not, there’s more than 17 games of gas left in his pro football tank.
“There’s a lot that’s out of your control at a certain point, but my mindset is, Dude, I’m gonna win this job, go out there and have an awesome season. And go do it again, and again,” he said. “My mindset is still that. I’m looking forward to going out there and proving to myself and my family that I still got it, and I’m gonna do this for a couple more years.”
Maybe he will. Maybe he won’t.
But just as he said that, he reiterated the very simple, very pure appreciation has for the spot he’s in, to once again be a team’s starting quarterback, no strings attached, going into the year. “It’s everything, man,” he said. “That’s what you do this for.”
And if he can find a way to win the job, he’ll get another shot at chasing what truly keeps him coming back for more, 17 years after he first hit an NFL field.
“Dude, I’ve learned to have a lot of fun at practice and being around the locker room and all that,” he said. “But when you’re in a stadium and you win a football game and you get to go in the locker room after that, I mean, that feeling is like no other. When you throw a touchdown pass and you win that game, and you get to go hug your teammates, a bunch of grown men hugging each other in a locker room, hooting and hollering like they’re 8 years old, it really doesn’t get much better.”
So maybe it looks weird that that’s all it’d take to get a guy of Flacco’s age to keep playing?
I’m pretty sure Flacco’s not too worried about what anyone thinks these days.
Baker Mayfield
Baker Mayfield’s 2025 is of great interest to me. Why? Seems like a weird thing to present in May? Well, I’d consider this full list of Mayfield’s play-callers since his final season at Oklahoma …
• 2017: Lincoln Riley
• 2018: Todd Haley, Freddie Kitchens
• 2019: Freddie Kitchens
• 2020–21: Kevin Stefanski
• 2022: Ben McAdoo, Sean McVay
• 2023: Dave Canales
• 2024: Liam Coen
• 2025: Josh Grizzard
Add to that the head coaching turnover he’s witnessed—he had three head coaches in college, and has had seven in the NFL—and that’s a lot of turnover and change to withstand.
So now, if you’re the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Mayfield himself, the question becomes how to calm the waters of change, and find a way to build off what’s already been established, since the last two play-callers that left the quarterback did so for the right reason (to pursue head-coaching opportunities, as a result of the Bucs’ success). And to that end, Mayfield and Grizzard are working on it, and the quarterback’s personally investing in it.
Earlier this year, Mayfield and his wife sold their place in his native Texas, and moved full-time to Tampa. He was already spending most of the year in Florida anyway, but as the Bucs saw it, and I believe Mayfield intended it, the decision was symbolic of the eighth-year pro leaning into truly making the team his own and embracing the role of franchise quarterback.
The upshot has been Tampa being able to hit the ground running in the spring. With Mayfield and Grizzard establishing early on their plans to tweak the offense Coen brought in last year, rather than overhaul anything—Grizzard was hired off Mike McDaniel’s staff by Coen in the first place, so he’s steeped in the Shanahan system—the quarterback had the chance to be the teacher for his young receivers before they even got in front of the coaches.
That happened during the dead period, with Mayfield hosting workouts at the Tampa area training facility where he does his offseason work, and it should, at the very least, give the Bucs depth as they integrate first-round pick Emeka Egbuka (who’s already shown a very high football IQ) and bring Chris Godwin back from injury (the Bucs should have a better idea on his timetable at the start of camp; hope is there he could make it back for Week 1.)
So while stability of coordinator, play-caller and system would obviously be preferable, Mayfield and the Bucs are clearly doing all they can with the situation they’re in.
Michael Penix Jr.
The focus with the Atlanta Falcons is squarely on developing Michael Penix Jr. We’ve gone over, chapter and verse, the Kirk Cousins saga. And it’s obviously been a worthy topic. But the focus inside that building really hasn’t been on the 16th-year quarterback.
It’s on the guy he’s slated to back up.
Quietly, the pieces of an offense to best fit Penix are being put together—in a way they couldn’t have been last year with Atlanta locked into having Cousins under center. The spring started with Penix, Raheem Morris and OC Zac Robinson putting in the core fundamental elements of the offense. Penix has proven to be even faster on the uptick than expected when he was drafted, needing to be taught things just once, and that helped in getting his footwork synced up, his base widened and his eyes where they needed to be.
From there, the coaches wanted to work on creating ways to best take advantage of his high-end arm talent. Having seen his deep-ball accuracy as very, very rare coming out, the Falcons added slower developing, play-action concepts to take advantage of his ability to create explosive plays down the field. Knowing his arm strength for what it is, they’ve also dug in on expanding the perimeter passing game, incorporating more out-breaking routes outside the numbers and to the wide side of the field.
Of course, Penix will have to keep earning the trust of the coaches, knowing, as the saying has gone in Atlanta, that “a shot called doesn’t mean a shot taken” (meaning just because the shot play is called a certain way doesn’t mean the right thing will be to take that shot).
But there’s been nothing thus far indicating he won’t maintain that trust. His teammates are solidly behind him. Because he’s proven to be so football smart, the coaches believe in him.
And while the Cousins situation is still hovering, it’s sort of become an out-of-sight, out-of-mind thing for the people inside. The veteran’s been around less than a handful of time this spring, as I’ve heard it, and has effectively blended in with the wallpaper when he has been in the building. Which is to say even if he’s not much help to Penix as it stands now, he’s certainly not a hindrance either.
So, for now, this all looks really good.
We’ll see how it translates once the pads go on, and the on-field action gets real.
James Cook
The James Cook situation is fascinating. On one hand, he certainly deserves to be among the young core players the Bills rewarded this offseason—with Gregory Rousseau, Christian Benford, Terrel Bernard and Khalil Shakir now on new deals. He was the best skill player on the team, next to league MVP Josh Allen, and is still ascending at 25 years old.
On the other, it’s really hard to value a running back on a new contract. Especially if that guy isn’t quite on the level of a Christian McCaffrey, Derrick Henry or Saquon Barkley.
Cook had 1,267 scrimmage yards last year after posting 1,567 scrimmage yards in 2023. He averaged a career-high 4.9 yards per carry last year and scored 18 touchdowns, which doubled the number he had over his first two years combined. He’s only missed two games over his first three years. He’s well-liked and hard-working and all that, too.
That’s why the Bills already tried to get him signed. They had talks earlier in the offseason and my sense is that the two sides were never very close to finding real common ground. Which explains how quiet it’s been on the Cook front since that flurry of Buffalo extensions.
The challenge here is, and will continue to be, where the sweet spot is for a player at a position that, quite simply, doesn’t seem to have a discernible payscale at all.
Henry’s contract could be one comp. He had one year left at $7 million going into this offseason. The Ravens, as part of a two-year extension, gave him a $7 million raise for this year and $11 million fully guaranteed next year, with a de facto $12 million team option in 2027. Cook is under contract at $5.7 million for this year, so it’s feasible to look at it and say such a short-term extension could work for everyone—and Cook would be up again at 28.
Josh Jacobs could be another comp, having done a four-year, $48 million deal with the Packers as a 26-year-old free agent in 2028. Jacobs carried a heavier workload and had a rushing title on his resume as a more rugged, if less versatile, back than Cook.
Then there’s the question of how you look at Jacobs versus other backs. A quick poll of four top execs with pro-scouting backgrounds brought varying opinions. One said, “Based on the last two seasons and his age, I would say he’s in the top tier.” Another said, “I don’t see him as a top-10 RB, personally.” Another agreed with that, adding, “he’s near the top of tier 2. I’d say it’s Saquon, CMC, Bijan [Robinson], Henry, then a group of guys like [Jahmyr] Gibbs, Cook, Jacobs.” The fourth compared Cook, from a value standpoint, to Aaron Jones.
So it’s complicated. We’ll see if the Bills and Cook’s agents, led by Zac Hiller, can make progress on a new deal. Or if Cook makes a change (Ravens WR Zay Flowers recently moved on from Hiller’s agency) to try and turn momentum around. The clock, of course, is ticking.
Bryce Huff
The trade for Bryce Huff is another trip down a well-worn path for the San Francisco 49ers. And it makes Huff the latest client at the Kris Kocurek Career Rehabilitation Center.
The Niners defensive line coach/pass-rush ninja has done this over and over again—taking physically gifted rushers that hit a rough patch, or never fully developed as pros, and getting them back on track through a combination of scheme help and technique work.
Arden Key, Samson Ebukam, Kerry Hyder and Leonard Floyd are among the guys that the Niners scooped up at a cut rate, got short, solid runs from and extended their careers, and earning power, on the back end. Yetur Gross-Matos, a former Panthers second-round pick, joined that group last year, on a cheap, two-year deal. And now Huff is in too, at the price of a mid-round pick, and less than half of his $17 million number for 2025. If it works, then the Niners hold what amounts to a $17.1 million option for 2026.
The upside here is considerable. He’ll be reunited with new 49ers DC Robert Saleh, under whom he broke out for 10 sacks in his fourth season. It was also Huff’s walk year, and Huff did walk, which I know Saleh lamented even if he had first-rounders Jermaine Johnson and Will McDonald IV on the edge—because he considered Huff his most natural pass rusher of a pretty good bunch the Jets had at the time.
Huff left for the riches Philadelphia offered, with a chance to prove himself an every-down defender on a championship defense. In the end, even with the ring he got along the way, it didn’t work out, thanks in large part to the demands Vic Fangio’s scheme puts on edge players to drop into coverage and set hard edges in the run game. Always better moving upfield, and attacking, his fit was better with Saleh all along.
So now, he’ll get Saleh, and Kocurek, and suddenly a Niners defensive line that went into the draft with Bosa and not a ton more than hope has added three top-75 picks (Mykel Williams, Alfred Collins, Nick Martin) and Huff. Which is more evidence that this San Francisco group won’t roll over in 2025, like some might’ve thought they would when they started turning over the roster in March.
Jalen Ramsey
The more people I talk to, the more I think Jalen Ramsey’s value now really is as a safety. That, by the way, doesn’t mean he can’t play corner anymore. He can. It’s just that, at this point, if you’re bringing him in, leaning into what he still does well and planning on having him as more than a stopgap rental, then safety is likely where his future lies.
Think Charles Woodson or Rod Woodson and you get an idea of where this could go.
“I think that’s a safe landing spot to put him in position to still do things that he does well,” said an NFC exec. “So that’s like a $10 million-$12 million player.”
That’s about half of the $21.1 million Ramsey has left on his deal for this year (a $4 million roster bonus has already been paid out), and sets a decent range for what Miami might have to do, as far as eating money goes, to get a decent return for the former All-Pro. Ramsey’s number is $21 million for next year, so if another team gets him for this year at $10 million, you could reason that he’s a $15 million per year guy for that team for the next two years.
Either way, talks have been ongoing on a Ramsey deal. With June 1 now in the rear-view mirror, the cap situation is more palatable for the Dolphins. And I do think all parties would like some closure on this saga.
Stefon Diggs
The Stefon Diggs kerfuffle, I’d think, will come down to what Diggs tells the Patriots. It’s pretty clear New England wasn’t pleased with the video that surfaced on the internet last week, showing Diggs on a boat where there was … a lot going on. And to me, it’s not so much the party scene, or even whatever was in the bag Diggs showed to, then handed over to, the girls in the video, as it a matter of common sense and judgment.
There are lots of players who partied over Memorial Day Weekend. It’d be naïve to think there weren't plenty of scenes like the one the Diggs video showed elsewhere. What makes it problematic is how Diggs let the whole thing get out the way it did. It sure didn’t seem like he was afraid of a camera catching his actions. Clearly, not enough was done to keep the video from getting out. And now, it’s been a week-long problem for the team.
I actually think if Diggs comes clean immediately with the team, and Mike Vrabel finds whatever he says to be credible, he’ll probably be O.K. But if Vrabel thinks Diggs is misleading the team? That’s where I’d say Diggs’s job would be in jeopardy.
We’ll see what happens.
For now, I know two things. One, the Patriots did a ton of work on the veteran market to make sure every guy they brought in could be a “program guy,” mostly by focusing on getting players who had background with members of the coaching staff, and this sort of thing undermines that work. And, two, after getting a closer look at it, and after we did reporting on it in March, there are plenty of trap doors in his contract if the Patriots wanted to get out of it before he ever even gets to a full-go practice.
Justin Fields
You should take what Justin Fields said last week seriously. It’s not that I think the Jets’ new starter is suddenly going to be a first-team All-Pro. It’s that I know enough to believe that he’s positioned himself to turn a corner in his third NFL home.
"I think I can be great," Fields told the New York media Thursday. "That's been the goal for me my whole life, my whole career. I think the sky's the limit for this team, for this offense, but we do have a long way to go.”
So here’s why I feel strongly about this—keeping Fields was far more of a consideration for the Steelers than retaining Russell Wilson. That’s because of how the coaches and players there saw the quarterback position last year. Many felt like the team shouldn’t have gone to Wilson in October. Lots of those same folks wanted the staff to go back to him down the stretch. And the coaches saw a guy who’d improved week-over-week through the first month of the season and, in the right sort of offense, was capable of really breaking through.
Whether it happens or not in New York depends on a lot of things, of course. But the situation there, I think, is better than people realize. The offensive line, behind young tackles Olu Fashanu and Armand Membou, has a shot to be really good. The run game, behind Breece Hall and Braelon Allen, should benefit, and get Fields in manageable down-and-distance situations consistently. And he’s got built-in chemistry with Garrett Wilson.
Now, there are questions. Fields’s issue has always been seeing the field, and having to see a guy come open, rather than anticipating, before throwing the ball. There also is the matter of finding some secondary weapons in the pass game—be it veterans like Josh Reynolds and Allen Lazard or young guys like Mason Taylor.
That said—and, again, I’m not saying Fields is going to be Mahomes—based on all this, I do think the bigger picture on Fields is going to look better than a lot of people expect.
Minnesota Vikings
The Vikings’ extension of GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah is notable, and a nice byproduct of all the success he and coach Kevin O’Connell have had to this point. Through three years, the two have gone 34-17, won a division title and made the playoffs twice. The work O’Connell has done with his quarterbacks, and the team in general, is obviously a big part of finding a way to accomplish all of that.
So where has the work of Adofo-Mensah and the personnel department come in?
I’d say the 2024 offseason brings the best examples of how imaginative the new Vikings regime has been in getting younger and more fiscally fit. Last year, Minnesota walked away from Kirk Cousins, and wound up with Sam Darnold and J.J. McCarthy; then let Danielle Hunter walk, and replaced him with Jonathan Greenard, Dallas Turner and Andrew Van Ginkel. The replacements were cheaper and younger, and gave Minnesota more depth.
Still, most expected a reset year. And the Vikings won 14 games. Which, to me, is pretty amazing, because the after-effects of that are, basically, that Minnesota avoids having to do an eventual full-scale rebuild. It also, for what it’s worth, gave the team the flexibility to be hyperaggressive in trying to get bigger and more physical along its fronts, with the free-agent additions of Ryan Kelly, Will Fries and Jonathan Allen.
Bottom line, as long as a few young guys like McCarthy and Turner pan out, Minnesota is set up, coming off a 14-win year, to have a pretty good run of sustained success.
Now, eventually, that’s going to have result in playoff wins for a coach and GM that are still seeking their first one in Minnesota. But to this point, it’s pretty hard to argue with the results the 2022 hires have brought home.
Quick-hitters
Mandatory minicamps kickoff tomorrow with the Bears getting theirs going, and the rest of the league following suit over the next two weeks. So let’s get some quick-hitters going to get you ready for all that …
• Jonnu Smith makes all the sense in the world as a complement to Pat Freiermuth in Pittsburgh. It also will reunite him with the coach, Arthur Smith, who’s always best known how to get the most out of him.
• Pay attention when Raiders OC Chip Kelly says: “Geno [Smith] is literally like a second coach” for the offense. Kelly doesn’t throw plaudits like that around, and Smith, for any issues he’d had in his career, is beyond reproach from a work-ethic standpoint.
• Caleb Williams 100% did the right thing by taking the story from Seth Wickersham’s book head-on last week. If he didn’t address it, it would linger over the team. Now that he has, I do think the Bears can put it in the past.
• The Trey Hendrickson thing needs deadlines to create movement, and I do think the Bengals mandatory minicamp, set for June 10–12, is one to keep an eye on.
• I mentioned Allen above. I think his role in the Jets offense, alongside Hall, could be pretty significant.
• With the efforts to deal Smith and Ramsey, it’s fair to wonder where the Dolphins might stand on the possibility of trading Tyreek Hill. Hill’s 31, and his numbers were way down last year. If this is going to be a reset year anyway …
• Isiah Pacheco said this week he’s healthy, and bigger, and conceded he wasn’t himself at the end of last year in the aftermath of a broken fibula. I think it’s fair to say that having him back at full speed will make a pretty big difference for a Chiefs run game that ranked 22nd in the league last year, and averaged just four yards per carry.
• With the buyout date gone now, I do think Bill Belichick will coach at North Carolina in the fall. Why? It’s simple. Coaching is what he wants to do more than anything else. And right now, it’s not like there’s a better place out there for him to do it.
• The Bills promoted Terrance Gray to assistant GM last week, and I’d say it almost certainly won’t be the last step up the ladder he takes. If Buffalo’s as good as expected, he’ll be at the top of a lot of lists in January.
• A reminder: the next critical date on the Aaron Rodgers/Steelers front is a week from tomorrow, when Pittsburgh opens its mandatory veteran minicamp.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Takeaways: Joe Flacco Is at Ease Amid the Browns’ Crowded QB Competition.