In Joe Flacco's race to fend off an advancing Father Time, the Denver Broncos quarterback can still chuck'em deep.
Teammate Von Miller left awed after watching the 34-year-old quarterback unleash big bombs during the team's minicamp on Tuesday.
"He looks like a Super Bowl MVP to me," Miller said, via the Associated Press. "Today he had a play-action, rolled out to the right and threw the ball from the opposite 20 to the opposite 15. Now, I don't know how far that is."
That particular deep pass of 65 yards landed just out of receiver Brendan Langley's reach.
"He threw the ball far," Miller said. "He can throw 80 yards, easy."
Flacco shouldn't need to throw it 80 yards to be effective, as evidenced by hitting rookie tight end Noah Fant in stride for a 50-yard gain, but it's that arm strength that impressed teammates.
The veteran quarterback acknowledged that playing quarterback is more than just how far he can throw.
"I have no idea. I hope I don't have to throw the ball too, too far," Flacco said. "You want to get the ball out and throw it in rhythm. So, hopefully, 50 yards downfield and you won't push it down much further than that.
"But I would think that the air up here, you actually can get a few more yards further. I mean, I have no idea how far I can throw a ball up here. I haven't really tried and I don't really plan on going out there and trying to do it."
Broncos fans remember Flacco uncorking one particular bomb back in 2013, hitting Jacoby Jones on a 70-yard touchdown catch in the waning moments of the playoff tilt that propelled the Baltimore Ravens to the Super Bowl.
"That gets pumped up," Flacco said of the throw. "If you go back and look at that throw, it was only like 50 yards. It could have been more. Jacoby didn't think the ball was coming to him. I was getting ready to wind up and fire it. Next thing you know, I had to kind of take some off. I don't think I threw the ball that far there. But, whatever you want to say, it sounds good."
Flacco still has the smarts to go along with the big arm. It's shrewd for the starting quarterback not to rub it in on the fans who will now be cheering his successes.
The Broncos' prosperity in 2019 will have more to do with Flacco fitting balls into tight spaces all over the field, short, intermediate, and long, than it does how far he can throw. Still, it's good to know when the veteran needs to unleash a bomb, he's still got it in the quiver.
