Joe Flacco was watching NFL games on Sundays at his mom's house just about a month ago. Now, he's leading a team with the same record as the Chiefs steadfastly into the playoffs.
Flacco — a former Super Bowl MVP — has played more than admirably in his return to football, averaging 313 passing yards per game with a total of seven TDs and five interceptions. More importantly to the 38-year-old and the Browns — who have cycled through four starting quarterbacks this season — two of those games have ended in victory, including one against the well-regarded Jaguars.
Against the Bears on Sunday, Flacco engineered a come-from-behind victory, overcoming three interceptions to lead the Browns down the field to make a last second field goal and win the game 20-17.
The recent performances have moved his Comeback Player of the Year Award odds to +1200. That's up from being off the board entirely, of course, before the start of the season.
In fact, the day before his win against the Jaguars, his odds had been +25000. After the win, they went up to +6000, and the odds have steadily increased from there.
The leader in the Comeback Player of the Year marketplace is, naturally, Damar Hamlin. His odds of -600 imply a probability of about 86%. Hamlin has played most of his games on special teams this season after suffering a cardiac arrest vs. the Bengals in January.
Hamlin was the lengthy -400 favorite entering the season before his odds changed to roughly -110 amid Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa's ascension. With Tua's loss to the Titans earlier this month, Hamlin's odds skyrocketed back toward his preseason mark.
The second-most likely favorite, according to FanDuel, is Matthew Stafford at +1000. The 35-year-old has cooked up a resurgent year for one of the league's sleeper teams.
Meanwhile, the aforementioned Tagovailoa has slipped to a mark of +1600, which he's slotted at alongside Baker Mayfield and Lamar Jackson.
Jackson is returning from an injury that took him out of the last several games of 2022, including the playoffs. And Mayfield's career was nearly written off before an admirable return as a starting quarterback for the Bucs.
