Browns to rest Joe Flacco, start Jeff Driskel vs. Bengals with playoff seed locked

The Cleveland Browns will start Jeff Driskel at quarterback in Sunday’s season finale at Cincinnati.

With the Browns locked into the AFC’s No. 5 seed and a wild card date set with the AFC South champion, many of the team’s regulars will not play this week. Browns coach Kevin Stefanski announced Driskel as the starter but otherwise isn’t getting into specific lists.

Joe Flacco will not play. Myles Garrett and Amari Cooper almost certainly will not either. Stefanski said the Browns “earned the opportunity” to sit many of their starters and will go into the game with the intent of keeping them on the sideline. The Browns could play on Saturday of wild card weekend, so they’ll try to be as fresh as possible for a real practice week next week.

Flacco, named Super Bowl XLVII MVP after leading the Baltimore Ravens to the title, has started five games for Cleveland this season. He’s thrown for at least 300 yards in each of the last four, all wins, and has become the first player in NFL history to have at least 250 passing yards and two touchdown passes in each of his first five games with a new team.

Flacco has been with the Browns long enough to get comfortable with the offense and his teammates, and he’s earned a week off. He will turn 39 when the Browns play at the AFC South winner.

Driskel was signed last week from the Arizona Cardinals’ practice squad. Stefanski does not want to go back to backup P.J. Walker, so Driskel will get a look this week to run what should be a buttoned-up offense and get a tryout of sorts for the No. 2 quarterback job in the postseason. Driskel quarterbacked the Bengals against the Browns in Week 16 of the 2018 season, throwing two touchdowns in what was his fourth career start.

He will be the fifth starting quarterback the Browns have used this season.

Stefanski did provide two promising injury-related updates Wednesday. Wide receiver Elijah Moore will practice this week but remains in the concussion protocol. Moore spent the night at a local hospital last Thursday after suffering a concussion vs. the New York Jets.

Edge rusher Ogbo Okoronkwo has missed the last three games with a pectoral injury, but he will also practice this week. It was feared that Okoronwko had suffered a torn pectoral, but Okornonwko sought a second opinion and has remained on the team’s active roster. Neither the Browns nor Okornokwo have been public about his outlook, but his return to practice indicates he’ll at least try to be back on the field for the playoffs.

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(Photo: Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)