New York Jets quarterback Joe Flacco said Tuesday he won’t be ready for the scheduled start of the regular season in September as he recovers from April surgery to repair a herniated disk in his neck.
“I can’t speak to exactly when I’m going to be ready, but it will not be Day 1,” Flacco said in an interview with SiriusXM NFL radio. “Obviously, we’ll get with the doctors, and I have another checkup come August, so we’ll see where that goes.”
Multiple outlets have reported Flacco won’t be cleared for contact until late August or early September. The Jets’ regular-season schedule — assuming it goes as planned amid the coronavirus pandemic — begins Sept. 13 at Buffalo, exactly one month after their preseason opener against the Giants.
Flacco, 35, played eight games with the Denver Broncos in 2019 but hurt his neck midseason and landed on injured reserve. He was released in March with a failed physical designation before agreeing to a reported one-year, $1.5 million deal — with up to $3 million in additional incentives — with the Jets on Friday.
He said he doesn’t plan on retiring anytime soon.
“I’ve had some things happen, got injured and had to have surgery,” said Flacco, who also tore his ACL in 2015 and was sidelined by a hip injury in 2018. “I have to find my way back into the league. I want to play for years to come.”
Flacco will compete to back up Sam Darnold, who was the third overall pick of the 2018 NFL Draft. Fellow quarterbacks David Fales and rookie James Morgan — a fourth-round pick — are also on the roster.
“I want to help the team in any way possible and also be a guy Sam can lean on, that he can learn from,” Flacco said.
Flacco went 2-6 as a starter for Denver, passing for 1,822 yards with six touchdowns and five interceptions. He has thrown for 40,067 yards with 218 touchdowns and 141 interceptions in 171 career games with the Ravens and Broncos.
