Joe Flacco’s run as the starting quarterback in Cincinnati came to an end when Joe Burrow returned from a toe injury on Thanksgiving and he hopes it isn’t the last first-team run he has in the NFL.
Flacco won the starting job in Cleveland during the summer and started four games for the Browns before being replaced by rookie Dillon Gabriel. He was traded to the Bengals a short time later and started six more games that featured some good individual moments while the team went 1-5.
With the Bengals’ season coming to an end on Sunday, Flacco has started thinking about 2026 and his desire to be somewhere he has a chance to get on the field.
“That’s always a priority,” Flacco said, via Charlie Goldsmith of the Associated Press. “I’m somebody who wants to play football. You’ve got to assess and see whatever is thrown your way. You have to go from there and see what you can do about it.”
It seems unlikely that any team will be handing Flacco a starting job this offseason, but a role in a quarterback competition or as an experienced option to go with rookie could be in the cards for a player who doesn’t seem to have any thoughts about calling it a day.
The Browns added Myles Garrett to their injury report on Thursday with a hip issue.
Not that there was much question, but Garrett is still set to play against the Bengals on Sunday as he goes for the single-season sack record.
Garrett is off the injury report and is expected to play after two limited practices on Thursday and Friday.
With 22.0 sacks so far this season, Garrett is a half-sack from tying the record and a full sack from setting it outright.
Garrett also leads the league with 32 tackles for loss in 2025.
However, the Browns will not have two of their talented rookies. Linebacker Carson Schwesinger (quad/ankle) and tight end Harold Fannin (groin) have both been ruled out for the contest.
Schwesinger is a candidate for defensive rookie of the year, having recorded 156 total tackles, 11 tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks, and two interceptions in 2025.
Tight end David Njoku (knee/personal) and linebacker Winston Reid (back) have also been ruled out.
Cornerback Myles Harden (shoulder), guard Teven Jenkins (concussion), and center Kingsley Eguakun (knee/shoulder) are all questionable.
Defensive tackle Mason Graham (knee), defensive tackle Shelby Harris (toe), running back Dylan Sampson (hand), tight end Brendan Bates (shoulder), guard Joel Bitonio (wrist), cornerback Tyson Campbell (shoulder), safety Grant Delpit (Achilles), quarterback Dillon Gabriel (left shoulder), defensive tackle Mike Hall (knee), offensive tackle KT Leveston (shoulder), and starting quarterback Shedeur Sanders (back, right finger) all have no game status and are set to play.
Attention, Bengals: This is how you do it.
The Buffalo Bills have issued a call for snow shovelers in advance of Sunday’s finale against the Jets. It’ll be the last regular-season game played at the team’s long-time home, and likely the last game ever played there.
Buffalo has a very small chance of hosting the AFC Championship. If the Bills finish as the No. 5 seed in the AFC, they could host a divisional round game if the sixth and seventh seeds win in the wild-card round, and the AFC Championship if the seventh seed upends the No. 1 seed in the divisional round.
Before that happens, the Bills need to be the No. 5 seed. Which requires the Bills to win on Sunday, the Chargers to lose to the Broncos, and either a Jaguars loss to the Titans or a Texans loss to the Colts.
So, basically, Sunday is likely the swan song. Which means Saturday is the last chance to show up and dig out the snow. (Until next year, at the new stadium.)
The team’s offer is $20 per hour, hot food and beverages, and (for the first 500) free Highmark Stadium branded gloves.
League rules require the home team to remove snow from all seating areas. The Bengals failed to do that last month, prior to a home game against the Ravens. But since the league essentially gave the Bengals a pass, they saved some money by not clearing the snow.
It’s a new year and that means it is time for people to make resolutions about what they want to do differently over the next 12 months.
Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow didn’t have to dig deep to find one. The Bengals will wrap up their third straight season without a playoff bid with Sunday’s game against the Browns and Burrow was clear on Wednesday that he wants the team to find itself in a better place at this time next year.
“We don’t want to be in the spot we are in now, so something’s got to change,” Burrow said, via Ben Baby of ESPN.com. “Whether it’s players we have continuing to improve and get better and play championship-caliber football or bringing in guys that will or whatever it may be. Obviously, something has to [change].”
The first choices the Bengals have to make will involve the coaching staff. Head coach Zac Taylor is wrapping up his seventh season and a win on Sunday would make him 53-62-1 with two trips to the playoffs over that span. The team could opt to go in a different direction or they could opt for changes to the staff, before moving on to how they’ll address the roster around Burrow in 2026.
Browns defensive end Myles Garrett has sacked Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow plenty of times in his career.
But if Garrett brings down Burrow during Sunday’s season finale, it’ll be historic, as Garrett needs one sack to capture the NFL’s single-season record.
Garrett did not register a sack against the Steelers and quarterback Aaron Rodgers last week. Garrett remarked after Cleveland’s win that it appeared Pittsburgh was more concerned about not letting him get the sack record than winning.
Asked about his approach to facing Garrett in Week 18, Burrow noted there are situations where taking a sack might be his best option.
“Yeah, I’m certainly not going to overcompensate either way,” Burrow said in his press conference. “I’m not going to go out of my way to not let him get the record. And I’m not going to go out of my way to let him get the record either. I’m going to go and play football.
“There’s going to be situations that a sack is the best of the bad outcomes of that play, and maybe I take one. And there’s going to be other situations that I’m about to get sacked and I need to throw it away in that situation. Such a situational game that I don’t think you can go in thinking one way or the other. Every play is so different.”
Being divisional opponents, Burrow has a better idea than many other QBs what makes Garrett so effective.
“He’s more athletic than everybody else on the field — bigger, stronger than everybody else,” Burrow said. “He has a mindset that he’s not too high or too low at any point, which is pretty unique for a defensive lineman. I think he’s probably got a unique mindset as far as that position goes. But it’s one that you can appreciate.
“He’s a guy that I’ve kind of gotten to know over the years and I like him as a person. He takes his job very seriously and is a guy I have a lot of respect for.”
And if Garrett happens to bring Burrow down, he acknowledged that won’t be out of the ordinary.
“He’s gotten me a lot,” Burrow said with a chuckle. “He’s gotten me a lot.”
Bengals running back Chase Brown missed Wednesday’s practice with an illness.
Brown has played in all 16 games this season, rushing for 947 yards and six touchdowns on 219 carries. He has never had a 1,000-yard season, rushing for 990 yards last season.
The Bengals saw five other players sit out the final Wednesday practice of their season.
Tight end Cam Grandy (chest), defensive tackle B.J. Hill (ankle), wide receiver Charlie Jones (ankle), cornerback Josh Newton (hamstring) and defensive end Joseph Ossai (ankle) spent the session rehabbing.
Center Matt Lee (knee) was limited. He is in his 21-day return-to-practice window.
Cowboys linebacker Logan Wilson played zero snaps on Christmas Day against the Commanders despite being healthy and active. Backup quarterback Joe Milton was the only other active player not to play a down.
Wilson had averaged 28 snaps per game since the Cowboys acquired him from the Bengals at the trade deadline in November.
Not only was Wilson confused about his absence, so, too, was owner Jerry Jones.
Coach Brian Schottenheimer said the team planned to play Wilson. The Cowboys didn’t play Wilson because, well, they sort of forgot about him.
“We only had 21 snaps [on defense] in the first half,” Schottenheimer said Monday, via Joseph Hoyt of the Dallas Morning News. “We kind of messed the rotation in the second half. It’s not the first time it has happened. It won’t be the last time. It happens with receivers. It happens with defensive linemen. It shouldn’t happen. But we take that as a coaching staff.”
Jones said the day after the game he didn’t have an explanation for why Wilson was MIA.
“We planned to have him in there. He needs to be in there. He has good instincts,” Jones said on 105.3 The Fan. “The reason we got him was because he reads the play quick and can basically be in his lane of responsibility and react quick. It’s critical that a linebacker have quick reacting [ability]. He’s able to do that. That’s why we got him.”
Schottenheimer said it was a mistake to play Kenneth Murray all 44 snaps, Shemar James 36 snaps and Marist Liufau two snaps at linebacker without getting Wilson on the field.
“We do keep track of [snap counts],” Schottenheimer said. “Occasionally, you look at the numbers and they don’t make sense, and this one certainly didn’t make sense. We have to do better as a coaching staff with that.”
If Browns defensive end Myles Garrett sets the single-season sack record in Week 18, Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow will likely be on the receiving end of the record-breaking play.
Bengals head coach Zac Taylor confirmed at a Monday press conference that Burrow will get the start for the team in their final game of the regular season. Taylor said that Burrow gives the team the best chance to win by way of explaining why that’s the case.
Burrow missed most of this season with a toe injury before returning to lead the team to a win on Thanksgiving. He played one of the worst games of his career two weeks later, but has rebounded with 614 yards and six touchdowns in back-to-back wins in the last two games.
That gives the Bengals a chance to finish the season with a three-game win streak, but it won’t solve their three-year streak of missing the playoffs and that’s an issue of more significance than Week 18 as Taylor moves forward in his current role.
Bengals wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase did not catch a touchdown for seven straight games heading into Sunday’s game against the Cardinals, but he put an end to that streak in the first quarter.
Chase caught a 13-yard pass from Joe Burrow to open the scoring and then added another score in the second quarter of Cincinnati’s 37-14 win. That moved him up to seven receiving touchdowns for the season and Chase joined Randy Moss as the only players to reach that total in each of their first five seasons.
It also made Chase the first player in NFL history to record at least 1,000 yards, 80 catches and seven touchdowns in each of their first five seasons.
“It’s a blessing,” Chase said of reaching that mark, via a transcript from the team. “It’s a great opportunity — a great position, great guys around me and a great organization. I feel like I’m in the perfect place.”
Chase’s personal achievements are tempered by the Bengals missing the playoffs for the third straight year. Figuring out how to keep Chase playing at a high level while also building a better overall team will be the priority in Cincinnati this offseason.
The Bengals and Cardinals were both mathematically eliminated heading into today’s game and had nothing to play for, but the Bengals showed up while the Cardinals did not.
Bengas quarterback Joe Burrow had an excellent game, completing 24 of 31 passes for 305 yards and two touchdowns (both to Ja’Marr Chase) and no interceptions. Bengals running back Chase Brown added 22 carries for 101 yards and two touchdowns of his own.
The Bengals won 37-14, and it wasn’t even that close, as the score was 37-7 in the third quarter before the Bengals took their foot off the gas.
It was a meaningless game and the Bengals were winning a blowout, so in the third quarter they decided to have some fun, lining up offensive lineman Cody Ford at wide receiver and throwing to him — and he caught the ball, broke a tackle and gained 21 yards. Today is Ford’s 29th birthday, and that was a great gift.
The Cardinals’ lone bright spot came in the form of tight end Trey McBride, who caught 10 passes and set a new NFL record for catches in a season by a tight end.
With the win, the Bengals improve to 6-10 on the season. The Cardinals fall to 3-13.
