NFL Insiders Reportedly See Joe Flacco Trade As Sign Browns Have ‘Given Up’ on Season

Even though Joe Flacco wasn’t exactly lighting up the stat sheet in his four starts for the Cleveland Browns, his trade to the Cincinnati Bengals this week did catch some people in the NFL off guard.

Per The Athletic’s Dianna Russini, there’s a feeling among some around the league that the Browns have “given up” on 2025 after trading Flacco.

Cleveland benched Flacco in favor of Dillon Gabriel after a 34-10 loss to the Detroit Lions in Week 4. The Super Bowl 47 MVP remained the team’s backup last week, but he was surprisingly dealt to the Bengals on Tuesday.

The trade essentially amounted to a pick swap, with the Bengals sending a 2026 2026 fifth-round pick to the Browns for Flacco and a 2026 sixth-round pick.

Given where things are currently at for the Bengals, that pick could end up being very high in the fifth round. It won’t dramatically alter Cleveland’s fortunes in the upcoming draft, but it’s certainly plausible the front office could find a valuable contributor with that selection.

The idea of Cleveland “giving up” on this season is odd because the team is already 1-4, with three of those four losses coming in games started by Flacco.

Flacco was horrendous in his four starts, throwing for 815 yards, two touchdowns and six interceptions over 160 pass attempts.

Gabriel actually looked like a capable option in his first start against the Minnesota Vikings. He was the first Browns quarterback to throw for at least two touchdowns without a turnover since Jameis Winston in Week 11 last season.

A third-round pick out of Oregon, Gabriel already has more touchdown passes in just 37 attempts (three) than Flacco did.

Even if the trade is an indication the Browns have shifted their focus more to 2026, it’s probably in their best interest to see what Gabriel and new No. 2 quarterback Shedeur Sanders can do for the rest of this season as they make long-term plans at the position.

In a best-case scenario with Flacco, he would have given the Browns what he did at the end of the 2023 season. When it became clear that wasn’t going to happen, head coach Kevin Stefanski made the right move to look at the younger options on the roster.