The Bengals were desperate for a spark when they traded with the Cleveland Browns to get veteran quarterback Joe Flacco to Cincinnati. After three abysmal starts from Jake Browning, the Bengals turned to Flacco as a lifeline for the 2025 season.
Flacco immediately improved the quarterback situation, despite that only translating to one win. Flacco threw for a career high in yards vs. the Chicago Bears and went toe-to-toe with Aaron Rodgers on Thursday Night Football, his lone win as the Bengals’ starting quarterback.
With Joe Burrow set to return on Thanksgiving, Flacco knew his time as the starter came to an end after Sunday’s loss to the New England Patriots. Make no mistake about it, every NFL player wants a chance to start and contribute, but Flacco was (as always) a class act when talking about handing the offense back over to Joe Burrow.
“As a competitor, you always want to be out there on the field,” Flacco said. “This is what I live to do, go out on that field and play football. But at the same time, I feel really fortunate to have kind of found myself in this situation.
“As much as I would have loved to see us win games, I still had a lot of fun here with these guys in the locker room, going out, lacing them up with these guys has been a lot of fun, and I felt right at home, and have had a blast doing it. And I don’t think I really am looking at anything past that.”
Flacco knows his time as the starter is over, barring a disaster, and stepped aside with grace.
“I get how certain feelings could be involved with this,” Flacco said. “But in this case, it’s easy for me to kind of put those aside and just look at the positives of the whole thing, and be excited for another teammate trying to work his way back. So it might sound like crap and like I’m lying, and yeah, there is a tough part of not being out there. There always is, but I feel like I’ve put my head down and worked hard the last however long it’s been, and I’ve had a lot of fun with these guys.”
If Flacco chooses to play in 2026, there are a lot of people who wouldn’t mind him backing up Burrow.
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