3 events Bengals fans should pray for in Joe Flacco Netflix 'Quarterback' show

The Cincinnati Bengals somewhat foreshadowed their franchise-changing offseason when they pulled off a rare in-division trade for ex-Cleveland Browns quarterback Joe Flacco during the 2025 campaign.

Yet another major injury to superstar QB Joe Burrow forced the Bengals to seek a solution outside the building once Jake Browning wasn't up to the task. Flacco couldn't have impressed much more, especially at 40-plus years old. Hence why Cincinnati opted to bring him back for another year, albeit once possible starting opportunities elsewhere had dried up.

It was certainly a wild ride for Flacco last year, and it turns out, Netflix was around to record a lot of it. The streaming giant announced on Wednesday that Flacco is one of the Quarterback Season 3 stars in the ongoing documentary series.

Talk about Joe Cool — Flacco kept this on the low! There are at least a few things I want to see, and I assume many Bengals fans want to see as well from this latest offering after Burrow did the show in Season 2.

Bengals QB Joe Flacco's must-see storylines that Netflix's 'Quarterback' crew hopefully captured

The car ride from Cleveland to Cincinnati right after the big trade

What a saga. Flacco lost to the Bengals as the Browns' opening day quarterback, only to start for them by Week 6 against the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field. Such an easy first assignment, eh?

Mind you, Flacco had about two seconds (OK, about three days) to digest Zac Taylor's playbook, get some semblance of chemistry with Ja'Marr Chase, Tee Higgins and Co., and square off with a Packers defense led by Micah Parsons, behind an offensive line that had struggled mightily to that point.

A deep-dive feature on the Flacco trade by The Athletic's Paul Dehner Jr. was some of the best pound-for-pound sportswriting of the 2025 calendar year. Highly recommend the whole piece, but this chunk does well to summarize the chaos Flacco dealt with to get ready to play for his third different AFC North team:

"Flacco said goodbye to his teammates and coaches. The Bengals sent a car and two drivers to bring him down I-71. One brought Flacco’s car and the other transported Joe and his wife, Dana, who had already planned to leave their home in New Jersey to stay with him after he was benched in Cleveland. [...] Taylor sent the playbook over for him to review, and soon after, gave him a call. The new coach and play caller put the QB on speaker, and they started installing the offense as the streetlights and billboards buzzed by the windows."

If Netflix didn't have at least some sort of low-key camera situation going on in that car, what were they even doing? We need the audio of that phone conversation between Taylor and Flacco.

Can you imagine how much Flacco's head must've been swimming? How much Taylor was trying to cram in? Then, the mad rush to get all the minutiae squared away, logistics, getting to the facility, and trying to be ready to play?

Footage of these specific happenings need to be injected directly into the veins of Who Dey Nation.

Behind the scenes of that epic 470-yard performance vs. Bears

Taylor said that Flacco's right throwing arm was basically falling off in the week leading up to Cincinnati's Week 9 home matchup versus the Chicago Bears. Let's hope this year's Week 9 across the pond in Madrid is far better than the debacle that unfolded at Paycor Stadium.

No, Flacco wasn't a debacle. Far from it. He threw for 470 freaking yards with what sounded like an nasty AC joint sprain. How did the Bengals' defense reward him? By giving up a last-minute touchdown in a 47-42 loss.

Some locker room stuff is private for a reason. I just would love to see how the offense acted toward the defensive players, namely missed tackle machine Geno Stone.

That baffling collapse came on the heels of a 39-38 loss to the Justin Fields-led New York Jets the week prior. It was Burrow's 2024 MVP-caliber season all over again, when the Bengals would light up the scoreboard, only to surrender a stupid amount of points and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

The push-pull of the Patriots game and the impact of Joe Burrow's return

Was hard to land on one clean narrative here, but remember that Burrow was practicing to potentially come back in Week 12 for a tilt with the eventual AFC champion New England Patriots. Unfortunately, Burrow wasn't feeling quite right from that turf toe injury yet, so Flacco got the starting nod.

At this point, Flacco didn't have the same juice in his arm due to that nagging AC joint issue. Cincinnati's D actually played better, yet alas, Flacco completed only 19 of 37 passes for 183 yards, one TD, and a demoralizing pick-six in a 26-20 big fat L.

No offense to the Pats...they weren't some juggernaut. They benefited from an easy schedule, just as the Bengals are about to in 2026. It is what it is.

What I'm interested in is how Flacco took the news of Burrow possibly coming back, getting his practice reps eaten into, and how he handled the yo-yoing of thinking he might not start, to suddenly starting.

I know, the cliché is to prepare like you're the starter no matter what. It'd be fascinating to get some insight into Flacco's mindset, though, especially this late in his career. He's a lot more candid and outspoken than he used to be, which, no matter what Netflix does show, should make his Quarterback vignette a compulsively compelling watch.

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