{"id":663679,"date":"2026-01-08T11:50:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T11:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/663679\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T11:50:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T11:50:10","slug":"will-joe-flacco-be-back-with-bengals-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/663679\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Joe Flacco be back with Bengals in 2026?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jan. 8, 2026, 5:31 a.m. ET<\/p>\n

Dalton Risner isn\u2019t the only upcoming Cincinnati Bengals<\/a> free agent who wants to come back.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Veteran quarterback Joe Flacco sounds like a guy who might have that mindset, too.<\/p>\n

Provided a starting job doesn\u2019t open up elsewhere, of course.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Flacco spoke with reporters after the season ended and hinted that he wants to be more selective in what he does next as his career continues.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“For the last five, six years of my career, I don’t want to say ‘Quick,’ but I definitely looked at a lot of situations as a good opportunity,” Flacco said, according to Geoff Hobson<\/a> of Bengals<\/a>.com. “If a certain situation is actually a good opportunity, I’m probably at the point I had hoped there would be maybe something in my mind if I didn’t really love it, I would be able to say no.”<\/p>\n

Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n

RELATED:Bengals’ Duke Tobin to make rare media appearance this week<\/a><\/p>\n

Flacco is going to turn 41 years old this month and might not get a shot at starting somewhere else in the NFL. Age and the idea his outbursts this year were a byproduct of playing with Ja\u2019Marr Chase and Tee Higgins won\u2019t give him the best shot at a strong market.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Bengals and Zac Taylor have made it very clear they would like to have him back as Joe Burrow’s backup if all else fails.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When the Bengals traded for Flacco after Jake Browning\u2019s struggles, the appeal was a savvy veteran who could come in and learn an offense quickly. Flacco did just that, then was an important resource and backup behind Burrow upon the starter\u2019s return.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Bengals locking in Flacco when the time is right would check off one overlooked big need of the offseason, given the need to trade for him midseason in the first place.\u00a0<\/p>\n

RELATED:Bengals cautioned against Joe Burrow, Matthew Stafford scenario<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan. 8, 2026, 5:31 a.m. ET Dalton Risner isn\u2019t the only upcoming Cincinnati Bengals free agent who wants…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":663680,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2053],"tags":[95878,228,227,256,2296,7,6,13078,95905,95882,95913,96120,96122,96124,96121,96119,95896,95888,95895,95899,95883,96123,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-663679","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cincinnati-bengals","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-bengals","10":"tag-cincinnati","11":"tag-cincinnati-bengals","12":"tag-cincinnatibengals","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-sstssportsnflbengals","16":"tag-sstsnbengals","17":"tag-tagamerican-football","18":"tag-tagcincinnati-bengals","19":"tag-tagdalton-risner","20":"tag-tagjamarr-chase","21":"tag-tagjake-browning","22":"tag-tagjoe-burrow","23":"tag-tagjoe-flacco","24":"tag-tagnational-sports","25":"tag-tagnfl","26":"tag-tagnfl-hub","27":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","28":"tag-tagsports-news","29":"tag-tagtee-higgins","30":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663679","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=663679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}