The Bengals may make a quarterback change in Week 6, but there won’t be a change when it comes to who is calling the offensive plays.
Head coach Zac Taylor has handled those duties since coming to Cincinnati and he was asked on Monday if there was any thought to a change after scoring 37 points and turning the ball over eight times over the last three weeks.
“I feel very comfortable,” Taylor said, via Ben Baby of ESPN.com. “It’s a fair question. We score three points in three games in the first half. I totally understand that. But right now, it’s going to remain the same.”
The last three games have played out with Jake Browning at quarterback in place of the injured Joe Burrow and Taylor could opt to go with Brett Rypien, Mike White or Sean Clifford if he thinks one of them will do a better job of executing the plays he’s sending in from the sideline.
The first five weeks of the season couldn’t have gone much worse for the Ravens. They’re 1-4, they’re on pace to give up more points than any team in NFL history, and Lamar Jackson and many of their other top players are injured. For most teams in the Ravens’ position, the playoffs would be a pipe dream.
But for the Ravens, winning the AFC North remains a realistic possibility.
In fact, the Ravens are still the betting the favorites to win the division, with odds of +100 at DraftKings. The Steelers are right behind at +110. The Browns and Bengals are long shots, both at +1800.
The good news for the Ravens is that many of their key injured players will be back soon. Among those who missed Sunday’s game were Jackson, safety Kyle Hamilton, offensive tackle Ronnie Stanley, linebacker Roquan Smith, cornerback Marlon Humphrey, cornerback Chidobe Awuzie and fullback Patrick Ricard. They’re all expected to be playing sooner rather than later.
With the Browns and Bengals both seemingly going nowhere, the question in the AFC North will ultimately be whether a healthy Ravens team can catch up to the Steelers, who at 3-1 already have a 2.5-game lead in the division. The betting odds say the Ravens can, and will.
After a few games of disappointing play, Jake Browning may not be starting in Week 6 for the Bengals.
Cincinnati head coach Zac Taylor told reporters that the club is evaluating its options to start at quarterback against Green Bay.
“We’ll see where it goes,” Taylor said in his Monday press conference. “I think like all personnel decision, we’ve got to evaluate it. Jake’s been very accountable for how the game went for him. I’ve got to be accountable for how the game went for me as well. And so, we’ll continue to progress here through the days.”
Browning completed 26-of-40 passes for 251 yards with three touchdowns and three interceptions in the 37-24 loss to Detroit. In his four appearances with three starts this season, he’s completed 65 percent of his throws for 757 yards with six touchdowns and eight picks.
The Bengals also have Brett Rypien on their 53-man roster at quarterback. Former Packers QB Sean Clifford and Mike White are on the team’s practice squad. But all of those signal-callers are new to the team. Rypien has been with the club the longest, and he arrived on Aug. 27.
“Trying to do everything we can to help speed up the process for them,” Taylor said. “[W]e’ve tried to be creative in a lot of different ways to get those guys the information to where they can accelerate their learning process as fast as possible.”
Taylor said he will make a decision on the Week 6 starter at QB by Wednesday, largely because it’s not realistic to stage a competition in the practice week.
“You have so few reps. It’s just, every rep is critical,” Taylor said. “I mean, if you get two reps on a play during the week — a pass play — that’s quite a bit, two full-speed reps. So, it’s difficult to balance quarterbacks — you’re in on one quarterback and you need to get a move on. And you’ve got to find ways to evaluate the other guys on the team in other ways — whether that’s on practice squad, whether that’s in group install period.
“You have to use every resource because it is very challenging during the season to get multiple guys reps to evaluate how they’re going to look in your offense, with your receivers, and the O-lineman, and all that stuff — it’s just a real challenge.”
The Packers are coming off their bye week and are getting closer to adding a boost at receiver.
According to multiple reporters on the scene, Christian Watson is practicing on Monday, meaning Green Bay has opened Watson’s 21-day window to return from the physically unable to perform list.
Watson suffered a torn ACL in Week 18 of last season.
A second-round pick in 2022, Watson caught 29 passes for 620 yards with two touchdowns last season. He has 98 career receptions for 1,653 yards with 14 TDs.
Notably, Packers offensive linemen Zach Tom and Aaron Banks have also returned to practice after missing time.
The Packers have also opened the practice window for offensive lineman Jacob Monk, who has been on injured reserve with a hamstring issue.
Bengals head coach Zac Taylor said last week that he has unwavering confidence in quarterback Jake Browning, but the message was a bit different after Sunday’s game against the Lions.
Browning threw three interceptions in a 37-24 loss that dropped the Bengals to 0-3 in games he’s started this season. Taylor said in a postgame press conference that he still believes in the quarterback, but acknowledged that the team can’t turn a blind eye to performances like the one he turned in on Sunday.
“I do. Of course, after a game like that we’re going to look at all personnel to make sure we’re doing the right thing,” Taylor said, via a transcript from the team. “I won’t shy away from that because it’s a very fair question after the amount of turnovers we had. To say Jake can’t win games for us, I believe Jake can win games for us. I do. We’ll just continue to look at everything we can personnel-wise.”
Browning rebounded to throw three touchdowns in the fourth quarter, but the Bengals had already fallen behind 28-3 and he won’t find much objection to his characterization of his performance as “just brutal.” Brett Rypien, Mike White, and Sean Clifford don’t have histories that offer much reason to believe they’d be better, however, and that makes for a bleak outlook in Cincinnati right now.
