Joe Flacco Injury News: Bengals QB ’50-50′ For Crucial Game vs. Bears

Joe Flacco Injury News: Bengals QB ’50-50′ For Crucial Game vs. Bears

Oh, Joe, say it ain’t so. Corny, but it’s true. Hi again, everyone and welcome in to Cincinnati Bengals Talk. I’m James Rupin of Bengals Talk.com here at Por Stadium where the Bengals are literally headed to the indoor facility to practice right now as I record this. Joe Flacco will not be practicing due to an AC joint sprain in his shoulder, his throwing shoulder. And depending on who you ask, Joe Flacco has a 50-50 chance of playing on Sunday. That’s what Zach Taylor said a few minutes ago right here in this seat talking into this mic. You’re going to hear from Zach in just a second. Before we get to that, uh, quick reminder that this video is brought to you by Sleeper. Check them out today by downloading the Sleeper app. Use promo code Bengals Talk and you’ll get up to $100 in bonus bets with that first deposit. You can even try it for free right now by downloading the Sleeper app. Let’s let’s dive in though to this whole situation because it’s already a must-win for the Bengals again. We’re we’re right back to where when you lose to the Jets, you get right back to where you were pre Thursday Night Football. And so, you got to get it. And it’s funny, Zack Taylor said he wouldn’t classify it as a must-win. Like, he doesn’t want to describe it that way. And I said, “Well, what was your message to the team? How did how do you describe it?” And he said, “We got to win the game.” So, there you go. Hard to win the game without Joe Flacco. And that’s what’s really tough here. I mean, you’re talking about a guy who has a 100 quarterback rating in three starts with the team, seven touchdowns, no interceptions, has thrown for 700 plus yards, completing 64% of his passes. He’s playing at a really, really high level. Not practicing today. And that doesn’t mean that he won’t play. Not practicing today. Not talking today. Normally, he would talk on Wednesday. No Bengals quarterback is going to be up here at the podium today, and that’s scheduled now for Friday. So, what does it mean? It means the Bengals are giving him time. He’s sore. Certainly, he’s dealing with that. They’re hoping that as as the week goes on, he can do some things physically. He’s going to try to do some stuff tomorrow during the Thursday practice. He doesn’t need a ton of reps. Zack Taylor made that perfectly clear. Here’s all of the key points that Zack Taylor made about Joe Flacco, his health, Jake Browning potentially getting another start, and much much more earlier today right here at Por Stadium. He won’t practice today. Uh we’ll see what we can potentially get out of him tomorrow. So, we’ll just work through the week. I I think right now it’s probably at a 50/50 on on what’ll end up on Sunday. Does he need the reps at all? Is this I mean, you’ve seen you’ve seen what he’s done. Sure. Came in played on a Thursday, you know, after three days of practice. Um, so I think if anybody if anybody in this league can get by with minimal reps right now, it’s it’s it’s him. So if he if he didn’t practice really at all, if physically he could go Sunday, you would still be Yeah. And we’ve got a plan in place to see what we can do physically during the week. So it won’t be today. Um he won’t be out there during the open portion of things. He’ll come out after that, but uh we got a plan in place to see where he’s at as the week goes. Is it his throwing shoulder? Yeah. What the challenges he joined of trying to play through the week? Yeah. I mean with the sprain here’s the deal with him. I I don’t know cuz I’ve never done it. Um he wants to play in the game and so kudos to him, man. He’s been here three weeks. Um he wants to play. I hate speaking for him, but that’s what he’s told me. We’ll have to work through the week to see if that’s that’s able to do that. It’s a throwing shoulder. It’s painful. Um, but I mean, Cali, a guy who’s wants to do that, wants to get out there and play with something like that. Um, credit to him. So, we’ll we’ll go through the week and see where it ends up and have Jake ready to go, too, and and just see how it plays out. How do you feel like Jake’s responded since Flood came in? Yeah, I’ve been happy with Jake’s response. He’s still working hard. Um, if he’s in there and he gets the opportunity, I have confidence in Jake that Jake can win us a game. So, however it shakes out, we’ll have a great plan in place to to help those guys. Can you elaborate kind of what you mean kind of the whole kudos to him point? Yeah. About Flaco just getting here and wanting to play. Yeah. I mean, he’s been he wasn’t here in the offseason. He wasn’t invested in our training camp, you know, and so for him to come in and um it would be easy to make a decision that there’s no way I’m playing, you know, I just I’ve got an AC joint, we got a by-week next week, let’s just let this thing heal up. And that has not been the communication he’s given to me at all. Now, ultimately, he may not be able to play. We may make that decision, but um for him just to want to put it out there for our team um himself, like he said before, he’s just a football player. That’s what he does. Um, that certainly goes a long way with me. So, there’s a lot to unpack there. Here’s what I take away from it. The Bengals, as long as they feel like Joe can physically throw, physically protect himself, physically play Sunday, they’re going to give him every chance to play. They’re going to give Joe Flacco every chance, every opportunity to be ready to go when one:00 when the the game rolls around on Sunday. And I even asked later in the interview like, would you take it up to game time? And Zack Taylor sounded open to that. And why wouldn’t you be? Of course you would be. The season’s on the line. You can’t fall to three and six going into the buy. Zack knows it. The Bengals know it. And you traded for Joe Fleco for a reason. So I I totally agree with that. I think it makes a ton of sense. You you take it as far as you can, as long as you need to to make sure that if Fleco can play, he does play because of everything we’ve seen over the past three weeks. I have plenty of thoughts on this, plus an update on Trey Hendricks. We will do that coming up next. Today’s show is brought to you by Sleeper. You got to download the Sleeper app today and it’s awesome because it’s if you’re in a bunch of fantasy leagues right now and you’re dealing with injuries, I’m one of them. Well, Sleeper is daily fantasy. You pick more or less on multiple statistical categories, maybe you think that Jamar Chase, regardless of the quarterback, is going to have another 10 plus reception game or that T. Higgins is going to bounce back with a bunch of receptions. Well, that’s what you do with Sleeper. It is a ton of fun. And right now, you can try it for free without making a deposit. 20 bucks. Boom. Just like that with Sleeper. Also, use promo code Bengals Talk and you’ll get uh up to $100 uh in bonus money to use on Sleeper. So, don’t delay. Check it out today with promo code Bengals Talk. All right, let’s get a few more thoughts on Joe Flacco before we get to Trey Hendricks. And look, this offense has been just so different with Joe Flacco. And if you have to turn to Jake Browning, I think Jake Browning has worked hard. I think he’s uh certainly prepared, but you’re going up against a defense that has literally forced a ton of turnovers. And so that’s what’s tough here is the thing that Joe Flacco’s done really really well is take care of the football. And I think that’s the most surprising thing he’s done. I’m not shocked he’s been able to get the ball to T. Higgins and Jamar Chase. He’s done that throughout his career. A couple years ago, just breathe life into an Amari Cooper career that pretty much ended that year in 2023. And Cooper was great down the stretch. And so Flaco has done that with Chase and Higgins. I I I think you really have to look at it as a kitchen sink game. I was thinking about it a lot this morning and and how this this organization should approach Sunday and assuming you lose, it’s going to be nearly impossible to recover from it. And I get it. We’ve had a lot of big picture discussion, conversation about the defense, all of those things. I get it. But internally, they have to find a way to get a win. Like their logic is, “Hey, let’s get a win. Let’s get to four and five. We’ll catch our breath at the buy and figure it out going into Pittsburgh on November 16th.” Like that’s how they’re thinking internally. And so, how do you get a win? Well, you got to get a win if however you can. But if Joe Flacco’s on the field, that gives you your best chance. And and so, how do you get him there? I think that’s that’s what the next 96 hours or so will be. Dan Pitcher did say he was optimistic about Joe’s chances of playing. Better be. I mean, season’s on the line type type of stuff. And I get it. A lot of you have already thought, ah, no, it’s over. Whatever. I I certainly think that’ll be the Bengals approach, not just with Joe Flacco, but also Trey Hendrickson, who not practicing on Wednesday, is someone that the Bengals will certainly try to do everything they can to get him up and running and moving. Uh, because they need him. They need something. I mean, I I I was having a conversation with Thoren Cox of of locked on Bears this morning for our crossover on locked on Bengals and these offenses, let’s say Joe Flacco is able to play, these offense should be able to score points. The Bengals, you have to take care of the ball and if so, you’re going to be able to move the ball up and down the field and the Bears, well, everyone seems to be able to move the ball up and down the field against the Bengals defense right now. And so, if you have Trey Hendricks in, well, that certainly helps. It goes a long way uh toward helping things. Uh, one other note I wanted to get to, Mike Penel, really, really weird stuff to be quite honest and I wrote about it for benglesalk.com. So when I plug this, when I plug the website, make sure you check it out because it fills in the cracks in between videos. On Tuesday, the Bengals released Mike Penel. And it’s like, okay, well, he had 15 tackles, eight games. You signed him in September after he was released by the Chiefs. And then it turns out he asked for his release, got his release, and is in Kansas City today and is expected to sign with the Chiefs. What’s even weirder is 12 days ago, 13 days ago now, Chris Jones was talking to the Kansas City Chiefs media, and Chris Jones said how he wanted his guy Mike Penel back. And so, just really weird stuff going on where Mike Penel, 34 years old, has won two Super Bowls with the Chiefs, uh, appears to be going into his third stint in Kansas City. I It’s a bummer because one, I thought he brought something. Two, you just wonder what that was. says the Bengals had a a defensive players only meeting a few days ago. That was on Monday. Mike Pennel released Tuesday. I I don’t know. I I think it’s it’s one of those things where you can start to see the season going a certain direction. And ladies and gentlemen, I felt that a few weeks ago and then Joe Flacco got here and and it was like it was like something was lifted, a weight was lifted and there was hope again. and they played the way they did in the second half against Green Bay and then they beat the Steelers and then for three quarters they kicked the crap out of the Jets and it felt like that they were going to cruise and and then they have that fourth quarter and now I feel like it’s just taken them three steps back locker room wise. It’s like all right and and it’s shaky and I I do believe that. I think it is it’s one of those things where when you you start to have these losses like if they lose again then they’re one and six without Joe Burrow like sometimes you are what you are even if you have another Joe in the building so you got to get a win on Sunday and that’s why I would expect them to do everything they can to get Joe Flacco on the field everything they can to get Trey Hendrickson on the field this is very much a kitchen sink throw the kitchen sink and all of the utensils and anything else you want to put in this metaphor uh at this game to try to get a win on Sunday. Obviously, we’re going to have you covered. Who wouldn’t? We are here for you. Make sure you check us out wherever you get your podcast. That’s Apple. That’s the iHeart Radio app. That’s Spotify and Amazon. Also on YouTube, where 61,000 Bengals fans can’t be wrong. Thank you for subscribing. Thank you for being a member if you’re a member of the Cincinnati Bengals Talk membership club. And until next time for Andrew Foxm Miller, I’m James signing off at Por Stadium where it’s Bengals, it’s Bears, and hopefully it’s Joe Flacco. We’ll have you covered all week long right here on Cincinnati Bengals Talk. [Music]

Cincinnati Bengals QB Joe Flacco is dealing with an AC joint sprain in his throwing shoulder, and head coach Zac Taylor says it’s “50/50” whether he’ll play Sunday against the Chicago Bears. James Rapien of BengalsTalk.com reports from Paycor Stadium with the latest on Flacco’s status, and what it means for the Bengals’ season.

Plus, updates on Trey Hendrickson’s injury and the curious release (and probable return to Kansas City Chiefs) of defensive lineman Mike Pennel.

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