Joe Flacco is not ready to hang it up.
The three-year Jets quarterback and 2013 Super Bowl champion with the Ravens is still holding out for a deal with an NFL team this season, without any inclination toward retirement.
“Listen, I can still play,” Flacco said to ESPN on Thursday. “That’s me talking, obviously. 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.”
Flacco, who started four games under center for the Jets last year, said there wasn’t much interest when his agent reached out to teams this offseason.
Flacco threw for 1,051 yards, five touchdowns and three interceptions last season with the Jets after previously serving as a backup in 2020 and 2021.
“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 who can hopefully come in and learn an offense pretty quickly and at least give you a fighting chance,” he said, according to ESPN.
“I still believe that I have all of the athletic and physical tools to do it,” Flacco said. “In terms of the quarterback and the mental part of it, I’ve only gotten better over the last 15 years. So I feel just as physical as I ever have. I mean, not to say that I’m not 27, 28 years old anymore.
“But I’m in great shape and I don’t see a real drop-off.”
Flacco has thrown for 42,320 yards and 232 touchdowns over 15 NFL seasons and earned Super Bowl MVP honors in 2013 for his performance in leading Baltimore to a 34-31 win over the 49ers.