The Cincinnati Bengals are on thin ice entering Week 9 against the Chicago Bears, and once again, much of it has to do with uncertainty at the quarterback position.
Cincinnati's 2025 campaign has been borderline waking nightmarish. Halloween's haunts arrived way early in the Queen City when Joe Burrow went down with a turf toe injury in Week 2. Jake Browning took his place and proceeded to lose four straight games.
Although Joe Flacco's arrival brought about hope in a huge win over the Steelers, all that goodwill was squandered in last Sunday's shocking 39-38 loss to the Jets.
And now Flacco, aged 40, has an injury to his throwing shoulder. There are a variety of scenarios for how Week 9 will play out as it relates to Flacco's health. Not many of them good.
Joe Flacco's sprained AC joint is an injury that could officially derail Bengals' season
Joe Flacco hit the podium on Friday to discuss his status and was equal parts optimistic and vague about playing versus Chicago. Bengals coach Zac Taylor indicated that Flacco will be questionable to play.
"We'll see." - Zac Taylor on Joe Flacco's status for Sunday. "It would be silly for me to commit to that [Flacco starting] on a Friday."
— James Rapien (@JamesRapien) October 31, 2025
Clearly the Bengals are being cautious with Flacco even though he had a good practice on Thursday.
I wrote not long ago about how Browning could gut out a victory in Flacco's stead. That winning formula is built around the Bengals' suddenly-elite rushing attack, which can exploit a Bears defense that yield 5.3 yards per carry
Browning must keep the ball out of harm's way. He failed to do that to the tune of eight interceptions this season in his limited action. That triggered the Flacco trade in the first place.
The reason I'm advocating for Browning so much is, like I said in the intro, the variables that result in a net positive outcome for Flacco don't seem to line up.
Say Flacco plays. How effective will his arm be with that sprained AC joint? Could it get worse if he gets hit the wrong way? What if Browning gets launched into the lineup and looks like he doesn't know how to play football like he has at times this season? What if Flacco aggravates the injury to where he isn't healthy after Cincinnati's Week 10 bye.
Question marks all over the place. Potential warning signs. Maybe us Who Dey Heads are conditioned to expect the worst in 2025.
Then again, if Flacco can't go, the Bears have an elite play-calling head coach in Ben Johnson who should be able to capitalize on facing the Bengals' putrid defense. Sunday figures to be a high-scoring affair regardless, and there's little hope Browning can help the home team hang tough at Paycor Stadium under those circumstances.
That's why the Jets loss still stings so much. Flacco might've been able to afford a rest against Chicago if the Bengals were 4-4. Instead, this Bears game went from a, "would be nice to have before the bye" (considering Flacco's injury) to a gotta-have-it game.
Lots of risk any way Flacco and Taylor choose to play this. Just have to make sure the bigger picture is in mind, whatever the decision is, because the season is very much on the line in Week 9.