ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — The Denver Broncos have informed former Super Bowl MVP quarterback Joe Flacco that he is being released with a failed physical designation, the team announced Thursday.
Flacco, who was placed on injured reserve halfway through last season with a herniated disk in his neck, becomes an unrestricted free agent.
He was 2-6 as a starter in 2019, throwing for 1,822 yards with 6 touchdowns and 5 interceptions. He completed 63.5% of his passes last season.
Flacco had two years remaining on the deal — the Broncos renegotiated it last August to give themselves additional salary cap room — with salary cap charges of $23.650 million in 2020 and $27.650 million in 2021.
By releasing Flacco, the Broncos face a $13.6 million “dead money” hit on their salary cap, but they also save just more than $10 million against the cap, so the net cap hit overall would be about $3 million.
His release has been expected for weeks, especially after the Broncos had agreed to terms earlier this week with Jeff Driskel to be the team’s backup quarterback behind Drew Lock.
It is still a long way from a year ago, when Flacco’s arrival in Denver was greeted with team president of football operations/general manager John Elway’s declaration that the former Super Bowl MVP “has a lot of football left in him” and that Flacco was “just really coming into his prime.”
In 12 NFL seasons, Flacco is 98-73 as a starter with 40,067 passing yards, 218 touchdowns and 141 interceptions.