Report: Joe Flacco was Redskins’ first choice at quarterback this offseason

Despite the fact that few, if any, believed the Redskins could afford to get and keep Joe Flacco, he was reportedly their top option this offseason.

One of the themes of the early stages of the offseason was the debate about whether or not the team would go after Joe Flacco. The former Super Bowl MVP was destined to leave the Ravens after ceding the starting job to promising rookie Lamar Jackson. However, few realistically thought that the Redskins could afford Flacco, given his $18.5 million cap hit coupled with that of Alex Smith, which is over $20 million.

That said, there were some rumblings at the time of the Broncos’ trade for Flacco that the Redskins were involved. They ultimately had to bow out, as the Broncos likely had a better offer (the Redskins have no fourth-round pick) and the team would be crippled financially. So, that all seemed to make sense in the greater context of things.

But now, there’s another wrinkle to the story. According to Craig Heist of 106.7 The Fan, Flacco was, “[The Redskins’] No. 1 target.” And that brings about some questions.

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First, of course, is the question about whether or not that would have been financially viable. As pointed out earlier, it wouldn’t have been, but the fact is that the Redskins were still involved late in trade talks. Maybe they thought he would agree to a restructured contract, but even still, paying that much for a rental on a team that, at the most, could sneak into the sixth-seed in the playoffs seems like a waste of resources. Either way, it’s clear that they didn’t have major concerns about adding a starting quarterback, no matter what the cost.

The other question is that if Flacco truly was the team’s No. 1 target, why didn’t they get him? They could have offered up their late third-round pick to get him if they truly believed he was the answer. This leads me to believe that they like some of the other options available just as much as Flacco. And given that they could come at a more affordable price, perhaps that is why they bowed out of the Flacco sweepstakes.

Flacco is still a solid quarterback, but at 34, he’s nearing the end of his career and isn’t anything more than average right now. He never really was that far above average anyway (despite the “Joe Flacco is elite” rhetoric following the Ravens’ Super Bowl win). He could have been a fine stopgap for the Redskins, but the price was too high. Thankfully, the front office realized this and didn’t make a move that would make their offseason operations difficult to navigate (from a salary cap standpoint).

Still, the fact that the team may have had Flacco as their top option is interesting, as many assumed they would just go the rookie route in the draft. But this news seemingly supports the theory that the ‘Skins would prefer to add a veteran in free agency and possibly focus on drafting a quarterback in 2020. It will be interesting to see what they ultimately end up doing there.