Former Ravens QB and Super Bowl champion wants back at 38: "I can still play"

When I woke up this morning I surely did so without any expectation of finding out about the potential return of a certain veteran to an NFL field. Welp, color me shocked.

It's been more than 10 years since Joe Flacco led the Baltimore Ravens to the second Super Bowl title in franchise history when the Flock went on to pull off the feat by beating the San Francisco 49ers in the Harbaugh Bowl.

Now, aged 38 and coming off a season partially spent playing for the New York Jets, Flacco is determined to give it another run as he thinks he "can still play," as he told Jamison Hensley of ESPN.

"Listen, I can still play," Flacco told ESPN. "That’s me talking, obviously."

Flacco might be many things, and I can tell you confident is one of those. Confidently. Flacco, mind you, wouldn't be the oldest player rostered by an NFL team this season if he ends up inking a deal, whatever that is. He is actually one of the better veterans available off the street, and he in fact was active and starting games as recently as last year.

The veteran Super Bowl champ led the Jets on the field five times last season completing 110 passes for 1,051 yards and five touchdowns against only three interceptions as a member of Gang Green.

Flacco had been a member of the Jets for three consecutive seasons, starting one game in each of those years before he and the organization parted ways for good this summer.

"I’m hoping that there’s the silver lining that I’m not anywhere right now and that I can be available to anybody. I’m not saying it’s going to be the truth, but if I was tied up with somebody as a backup and just didn’t play at all when all of a sudden three guys go down, well, I’d probably be in the back of my head be thinking, ‘Oh, man, would I have had an opportunity to go there?’ "So I do think that at the point that my career is in, it is a positive thing in a lot of ways that I’m not anywhere right now, because if somebody does need somebody, at least I’m available."

- Joe Flacco, former Baltimore Ravens QB

Flacco, according to ESPN's stats and Hensley research, ranks in the top 20 in all-time victories (99) and passing yards (42,320). You bet he's gunning for that no. 100 win, isn't he?

According to Hensley, Flacco's agent "reached out" to some teams in the spring, although Flacco told the beat reporter on Thursday that "there didn't really seem to be too much that was biting."

Flacco hopes to land offers as the season gets going, bodies go down, and teams are forced into calling up and signing reinforcements and emergency quarterbacks. He's convinced his experience would help him land somewhere.

"When people are really pressed to win some games, if they have to call on somebody, then they’d be more willing to get somebody like me," Flacco told Hensley.

The Ravens are packed at quarterback and it's hard, if not impossible, to envision Baltimore offering him a deal this season even if it's just for a few weeks and with one or two of the quarterbacks in their room getting injured and much more pressing needs elsewhere.

That said, that 100th victory would be incredible for Flacco to get donning Purple & Black threads.

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