{"id":456891,"date":"2025-10-18T18:29:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T18:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/456891\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T18:29:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T18:29:10","slug":"bengals-considered-long-list-of-qbs-before-joe-flacco-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/456891\/","title":{"rendered":"Bengals Considered Long List Of QBs Before Joe Flacco Trade"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a Week 5 loss to the Lions, their third straight lopsided defeat under backup signal-caller Jake Browning<\/a>, the Bengals aggressively began searching for a different Joe Burrow<\/a> fill-in. Led by director of player personnel Duke Tobin, the Bengals put together an extensive list of potential upgrades over Browning, Albert Breer of SI.com<\/a> details.<\/p>\n

Before swinging a trade<\/a> with the division-rival Browns for Joe Flacco<\/a>, the Bengals considered Anthony Richardson<\/a> (Colts); Kirk Cousins<\/a> (Falcons); the Giants\u2019 backup duo of Russell Wilson<\/a> and Jameis Winston<\/a>; the Rams\u2019 Jimmy Garoppolo<\/a> and Stetson Bennett<\/a>; Tanner McKee<\/a> (Eagles); and Josh Johnson<\/a> (Commanders). They joined the previously reported<\/a> Derek Carr<\/a> (Saints), Sam Howell<\/a> (Eagles), Drew Lock<\/a> (Seahawks), and Davis Mills<\/a> (Texans) in Cincinnati\u2019s exhaustive search.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Bengals narrowed the list down to five before choosing Flacco as the best option, according to Breer. It\u2019s unclear who joined the 40-year-old in the group of finalists or whether the Bengals even made calls on all of those QBs.<\/p>\n

In the end, Flacco won out as a result of a few factors. Flacco is affordable ($1.26MM base salary) and only cost a fifth-round pick. The well-traveled Super Bowl XLVII MVP also has plenty of AFC North experience, and coordinator Dan Pitcher identified him as a clear fit based on similarities between Cincinnati\u2019s offense and Cleveland\u2019s in terms of \u201cspacing the field and progressing pass concepts,\u201d Breer writes.<\/p>\n

Two weeks into what will be a short-lived run as the Bengals\u2019 starter, Flacco has looked like a shrewd acquisition. The Bengals lost his first start to the Packers, but they bounced back with an upset over the division-rival Steelers on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Flacco outdueled fellow 40-something Aaron Rodgers<\/a> in Week 7, going 31 for 47 for 342 yards and three touchdowns in a 33-31 thriller. He made superstar wide receiver Ja\u2019Marr Chase<\/a> the focal point of the offense, targeting him on a jaw-dropping 23 throws and hitting him 16 times for 161 yards and a score. Chase has already hauled in 26 passes and two of Flacco\u2019s five TDs as a Bengal. Flacco has yet to throw a pick with the team after tossing six in four games with the Browns.<\/p>\n

The goal in acquiring Flacco was to hang around long enough to make a potential Burrow return worthwhile in 2025. Burrow, who underwent toe surgery<\/a> on Sept. 19, is expected to miss at least three months. That means the Bengals will have to stay in the race into December under Flacco. At 3-4, they trail the division-leading Steelers (4-2) and sit in ninth place in the AFC. While the Bengals are still facing an uphill climb, Flacco has at least given them a more credible option than Browning under center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a Week 5 loss to the Lions, their third straight lopsided defeat under backup signal-caller Jake Browning,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402528,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2053],"tags":[1504,254,228,227,256,2296,7,392,1801,7841,562,76494,294,58,249,56,6,109,572,471,1840,3349,111],"class_list":{"0":"post-456891","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cincinnati-bengals","8":"tag-anthony-richardson","9":"tag-atlanta-falcons","10":"tag-bengals","11":"tag-cincinnati","12":"tag-cincinnati-bengals","13":"tag-cincinnatibengals","14":"tag-football","15":"tag-indianapolis-colts","16":"tag-jameis-winston","17":"tag-jimmy-garoppolo","18":"tag-joe-flacco","19":"tag-josh-johnson-qb","20":"tag-kirk-cousins","21":"tag-los-angeles-rams","22":"tag-new-england-patriots","23":"tag-new-york-giants","24":"tag-nfl","25":"tag-philadelphia-eagles","26":"tag-russell-wilson","27":"tag-stetson-bennett","28":"tag-tanner-mckee","29":"tag-tommy-devito","30":"tag-washington-commanders"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}