Joe Flacco confirms in first presser Bengals found a QB who won't flinch

It's not a slam dunk per se that the Cincinnati Bengals' quarterback situation will get any better with Joe Flacco under center. Cincinnati beat him head-to-head in the season opener, and the Cleveland Browns just benched him a week ago.

But something had to be done amid a three-game losing streak with the offense looking so putrid. It's evident that the Bengals locker room appreciates the organization's efforts to at least try to upgrade over Jake Browning. For all the hoopla about Flacco's arm strength, perhaps he can be an improvement over Browning via his conviction on short-area throws.

Flacco has been drinking from a fire hose to get down Zac Taylor's playbook before Sunday's clash with the Green Bay Packers. On Friday he finally got to hold court with the local media, and showed a lot of the characteristics that validate Cincinnati's decision to bring him aboard.

Biggest takeaways from Bengals QB Joe Flacco's opening press conference

WLWT's Jaron May captured what's probably my favorite quote of Flacco's debut Bengals presser, where he outlined his passion to still play football at 40 years young.

“I feel like I have a lot to offer to a football team. I feel like I’ve put in a lot of work my whole life to get to this point…You only get a chance to play in the NFL once…I don’t want to take that for granted. I still can play this game at a high level.”

Sure hope you're right, Joe! Because if it is indeed true you can still play at a high level, we did not see it in Cleveland. And granted, the Browns are a tire fire on offense and as an organization, but still.

Flacco had a renaissance of sorts by leading the Browns to the playoffs in 2023. He played well in spurts for the Indianapolis Colts last season while they figured out how to handle Anthony Richardson. And now Flacco has been benched and traded in swift fashion.

Amid all the chaos in Cleveland and in his life over the past 48 hours or so, Flacco has stayed calm, cool, and collected — readily expecting the unexpected. As he's wont to do since becoming a franchise QB-turned-NFL nomad.

The only immediate downsides to the start of Flacco's tenure in Cincinnati is the fact that he'll have a Sunday road trip followed by a huge Thursday night AFC North game with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Not a lot of time to prepare, or get acclimated to a new city, new locker room, new coaching staff, and new pass-catchers.

And look, Flacco can be all Joe Cool and nonchalant about this whole thing all he wants. There is the reality of being, well, a human being and how his latest change in teams impacts his family — albeit with a low cost of moving within Ohio.

"A lot of the times, when you're going through things as a player, you just adapt. you go with it. I think with everything in life, when things happen to you, you're just like, 'Alright, how do we go forward? What's the next step?' It doesn't really hit you too hard. But the people that care about you, they almost wear it on their sleeve, all these different emotions, more than you do. And I think how it's been over the last couple of weeks."

It's a stiff challenge for himself and his family, but it's one that Flacco is embracing with open arms. He could've bided his time in Cleveland, waiting for Dillon Gabriel to excuse himself from the lineup. Not take a bunch of hits in the meantime.

Nope. That's not how Flacco is wired. He'll jump into the heat of battle, even behind a porous Bengals offensive line with a bad run game, and keep slinging it till his arm falls off.

Browning wilted in the face of a golden opportunity to cement his status as an NFL starter, which he looked like in guiding Cincinnati to a 4-3 record two seasons ago. I don't get the vibe that Flacco is going to let this last-gasp chance at making a potential playoff run go to waste.

Despite the adversity that struck with the Browns, Flacco didn't flinch, knowing that another opportunity could arise if he kept his head on straight. That's exactly what happened, and all of a sudden, he has a chance to spark a potential AFC contender before handing the reins back to Joe Burrow toward the end of the season.

Check out Flacco's full presser here from the team's X page.

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