New Eagles QB Joe Flacco says he’ll mentor Jalen Hurts mostly by competing with him

Joe Flacco isn’t here to serve as one of the Eagles’ coaches, even if, at 36, he is older than 35-year-old offensive coordinator Shane Steichen, and 34-year-old quarterbacks coach Brian Johnson.

The first question asked of Flacco Thursday in his inaugural Zoom session with Eagles reporters concerned what he’d been told when he signed, if new coach Nick Sirianni instructed Flacco that his job was to mentor second-year QB Jalen Hurts, or if Flacco was told he would have a chance to start.

Flacco said “we didn’t really talk about that too much. … Right now, I’m here to play, to play a part in the role of a 53-man roster that wants to win a lot of football games. Obviously, I’m a competitor … and being a competitor brings out the best in a room anyway, and brings out the best in a football team. So that’s really the conversation that we’ve had at this point.”

This response brought up more questions along the same lines. The upshot seemed to be that Flacco is prepared to back up, after getting his first real taste of that last year in his 13th NFL season, playing behind Sam Darnold with the Jets. But he doesn’t want his new teammates and coaches to view him as some clipboard-carrying graybeard; Flacco signed here because he thinks he can still be an effective NFL quarterback.

As the Eagles’ starter?

“I’m not even really looking at it that way at this point. … Your goal as a football player is always to show people around you that you can play football,” Flacco said. “And I don’t care what level of playing that is, whether you’re the first-string, second-string, third-string guy on the team, you still want to prove to everybody on the football team that you can play football, and that you deserve a spot on this team, in some capacity.

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“And that’s really what my job is. Once I meet the guys and dive into this offense, it’s going out on the field and proving to everybody that I’m not just some old guy who’s been around the league and is coming to the new team. My job is to prove to these guys that I deserve some respect and I can play this game at a high level. That’s really what I mean by being competitive and competing.”

Flacco indicated he wasn’t looking to trade on respect gained from his younger teammates having watched him quarterback the Ravens to a Super Bowl XLVII victory, when some of them were in middle school.

“You don’t have to look at what I’ve done in the past. … Just take it for what it is, what you see today, and that’s what I am, that’s what I’m here to do,” he said.

Flacco said he and Hurts texted after he signed, and that they both are excited, but Flacco didn’t exactly lean into mentorship questions. He said he’ll lend his expertise in discussions in the quarterback room, but he said he thought his main value to Hurts would be pushing Hurts to get better, by competing.

Flacco said one of the attractions of signing with the Eagles is that “it seems like a really young coaching staff that has a lot to prove, and anytime you have a bunch of guys that want to prove a lot in this league, and want to win a lot of games … those are things that stick out at you.”

Last year was the first time Flacco entered a season as a backup. He ended up starting four games when Darnold was injured, but he spent much of the season watching. He was asked if it was hard to set his ego aside.

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He said he didn’t set it aside, that he had to believe in his capabilities, even as a backup.

“What I learned about myself last year was that I love football, and I love the opportunity to come in here with the guys every day and do what I love — go out on the practice field and compete with everybody, and bring the best out in every single person in the room. I love doing it. Last year definitely proved that, just because it was a little bit of a different role, and I still enjoyed it, to the nth degree.”

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There has been some negative fan reaction to Flacco’s signing, mostly because the announced terms of one year and $3.5 million, with another $4 million in possible incentives, seemed rich for a backup, at a time when the Eagles are fenced off from the pricier areas of the free agent market by a salary cap squeeze. But the NFL Network reported Thursday that the pact contains four voidable years, spreading out the cap hit. Flacco accounts for just $1.56 million in cap space this year.

Most of the Flacco discussion that didn’t involve his potential role had to do with his having grown up just across the Delaware River in Audubon, N.J., before he played at Pitt and Delaware, then was drafted 18th overall in 2008 by the Ravens. Eagles player personnel vice president Andy Weidl was a Ravens scout when Flacco was drafted; now they both live in Haddonfield. Flacco noted that he could “go grab a coffee in town and happen to bump into him.”

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“I grew up in this [area], and I know what it’s like. I mean, there can be a lot of positives, there can be a lot of negatives about that, just knowing what we’re like around here,” he said. “I just anticipate it being a lot of fun. I’m really excited about it. I think it’s a great opportunity for me and my family, just to be here, where we [already live.]”

He said that if you’re planning on texting him for Eagles tickets, “I just won’t respond to texts, probably, or I’ll try to pass them off to somebody else.”