It’s official: Joe Flacco will start for the Bengals on Sunday when they play the Packers.
Head coach Zac Taylor told reporters that would be the case to start his Wednesday press conference.
“Played him a lot, watched him a lot. Brings great experience, great leadership,” Taylor said of Flacco. “His style fits our style of play, too. So, excited to get him out there.
“We’ll start him this week. So, he’s going to take all the reps, get ready to go. Already spent a lot of time meeting with us, getting up to speed. So, feel really good about where he’s at.”
Taylor had only briefly met Flacco before the club traded for him. But he’s still plenty comfortable with the QB because of his extensive experience. Plus, Taylor has coached against Flacco many times — including Week 1 of this season.
“So, very comfortable with his style, concepts he’s been good at, things that fit us that we do,” Taylor said. “A lot of the terminology, there was a lot of carryover — more than I would’ve anticipated. So, feel like we can get him up to speed quickly.
“He’s a great passer,” Taylor added. “And, again, we’ve got to expand all areas of our offense to be better, to be efficient, to run the football, to protect — all that kind of stuff. But the No. 1 trait you’re looking for is a guy that can operate your system and throw the football. And Joe’s always been a tremendous passer in this league, and I’ve seen it. So, now we’ve got tremendous weapons that he can play around. I’m excited to watch him do it.”
Taylor said Bengals director of player personnel (and de facto G.M.) Duke Tobin told him about the potential for the deal on Tuesday.
“Obviously, he asked my opinion of Joe. And I was excited that if we were able to make it happen, I’m on board, that would excite me,” Taylor said. “And so then he just came and said we got it done.”
The Bengals had someone drive Flacco and his wife down to Cincinnati from Cleveland, with his new team beginning to catch him up on the new scheme on the drive from the North to the South of Ohio.
But now that Flacco is with the Bengals, Taylor noted Flacco can bring a sense of confidence to the club until Burrow is able to return later in 2025.
“I think everyone’s just seen him been there, do that — won a Super Bowl, won a lot of games, and been successful in a lot of different places,” Taylor said. “So, I can’t speak for other people. But when you bring a guy in here with that experience, those skins on the wall, I think it’s significant and can mean something to guys. But they’d have to speak for themselves on that one.
“[O]ur No. 1 focus is winning every game we can possibly win and go to the playoffs and go deep into the playoffs. That is 100 percent our focus, regardless of who our quarterback is. That’s what we’re trying to do.”
The Browns had no plans to send Joe Flacco elsewhere at the beginning of the week when they returned home from playing in London.
But then a division rival called, and that changed their plans.
On Tuesday, the Browns traded Flacco to the Bengals, setting him up to be Cincinnati’s starter until Joe Burrow’s return later this season.
In his Wednesday press conference, head coach Kevin Stefanski told reporters that the trade happened “very fast.”
“First [thing] I’d tell you is the Joe trade took us by surprise,” Stefanski said, noting the Bengals called the Browns. “That was not something that we saw coming.”
So why trade Flacco then, particularly to a team in the division?
“Obviously, AB makes those decisions,” Stefanski said, referring to G.M. Andrew Berry. “I trust AB. We talk about every decision we make. They wanted Joe. They made the phone call. Obviously, it gives Joe an opportunity to go play again. But, I trust in our decisions.
“[W]e talk through all those things. I would let Andrew speak to that. I don’t want to speak for him. But I trust in his decisions.”
Flacco did not play well through the first four weeks of the season, completing 58.1 percent of his passes for 815 yards with two touchdowns and six interceptions. He also lost a pair of fumbles. But the Browns will likely always have fond memories of Flacco from 2023, when he helped lead the club to the postseason and won AP comeback player of the year.
“Joe and I had a lot of conversations, I’ll keep those private,” Stefanski said. “Obviously, he’s somebody that we, in this building, think very highly of — think highly of the person, think highly of the player.
“Disappointed in where we are as a team, of course. But hopeful for him. But really, our focus turns to what’s in front of us, which is Steelers week.”
The Packers’ preparation for Week 6 took a twist on Tuesday when the Bengals acquired quarterback Joe Flacco in a trade with the Browns.
Flacco’s change of address was unexpected given the rarity of trades involving teams in the same division, but one silver lining for the Packers is that they’ve seen Flacco recently. The Browns beat the Packers in Week 3 with Flacco as their starting quarterback and seeing him again will mark a first for Packers head coach Matt LaFleur.
“I don’t think, outside of a division game, I’ve ever seen the same quarterback on a different team,” LaFleur said at his Wednesday press conference. “It’ll be interesting.”
The Bengals haven’t officially named Flacco their starter for this week, but LaFleur doesn’t see much reason to think that they will wait to put the veteran into the lineup.
“I would say that Joe Flacco’s been playing this game for a really long time and he’s been in a lot of different systems, so I would bet that he would have no problems picking it up even in a short period of time,” LaFleur said.
LaFleur said that “nuances” of the offense could present some challenges for the Bengals, but he is expecting them to continue doing “what they’ve done” as long as Zac Taylor’s been their head coach and the Packers will be hoping things go better than they did the last time they saw Flacco in action.
The Bengals traded for a new quarterback and now will get some help along their offensive line sooner than later.
Cincinnati announced on Wednesday that the club has designated guard Lucas Patrick for return from injured reserve.
Patrick, 32, has been on injured reserve since suffering a calf injury during the season-opening win over the Browns. He started that contest after signing a one-year deal with Cincinnati in March.
Patrick will now have 21 days to be activated to the club’s 53-man roster.
The Bengals will play the Packers on Sunday in Green Bay. Cincinnati’s first injury report of the week will be released later on Wednesday.
In Week 3, quarterback Joe Flacco led the Browns to an upset win over the Packers. On Sunday, Flacco could get a chance to do it again, as the quarterback of the other NFL franchise in Ohio.
Via Adam Schefter of ESPN.com, the Bengals “would like” Flacco to be ready to go for the Week 5 game at Lambeau Field.
It will require plenty of extra work to get Flacco up to speed, as to the terminology, plays, and concepts of the Cincinnati offense. And he has no experience with the team’s starting receivers, Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins.
That said, Chase and Higgins will be the best two receivers he has had during an 18-year career with the Ravens, Broncos, Jets, Browns (twice), and Colts. And Flacco’s job will be simple — throw it in the vicinity of whichever one of them is open.
Sure, Flacco may throw an interception or two along the way. But Jake Browning threw three on Sunday against the Lions. Two would count as an improvement.
