Bengals Unlikely To Trade QB Joe Flacco

There has been speculation about Flacco’s future this week as a result of quarterback injuries around the league, especially to the Giants’ Jaxson Dart. At least one fake report claimed the Giants acquired Flacco to replace Dart, who suffered a season-ending knee injury in Week 2, but the 41-year-old laughed it off.

“It’s obviously not real and not true,” Flacco told Conway. “But it was good enough to get people like certain friends of mine to get them to text me, ‘hey, I’ll see you in New York.’ I was like, ‘no, guys, you won’t, that’s not true.’”

The Bengals were in a similar position to the spot the Giants are in now when they acquired Flacco from the out-of-contention Browns last fall. The move came in response to a long-term injury to starting quarterback Joe Burrow, who left a Week 2 win with turf toe. Backup Jake Browning was the Bengals’ first choice to fill in, but after he performed terribly and went winless in three starts, the Bengals swung a deal for Flacco. While Flacco easily outplayed Browning, an inept defense helped lead to a 1-8 record during his nine starts. The Bengals, 3-8 and on life support when Burrow came back in Week 13, finished 6-11.

After Flacco completed 62% of passes, threw 13 touchdowns against four interceptions, and posted a 91.0 rating with the Bengals, the journeyman returned to free agency in March. Reports connected Flacco to the Falcons, Raiders and Rams, but two weeks into his stay on the open market, he re-signed with the Bengals on a one-year, $6MM pact.

Flacco has no path to playing time with a healthy and elite Burrow leading the Bengals, though the latter has frequently battled injuries during his career. Burrow has played either 16 or 17 games on three occasions, but he logged between six and nine absences in his other three seasons. With that in mind, it made sense for Cincinnati to hand Flacco a decent chunk of change to stick around and continue giving the team an above-average No. 2 signal-caller.

Flacco may not fetch enough in a trade to make parting with him worthwhile for Cincinnati, especially with the club aiming to snap a three-year playoff drought. If Burrow misses any time this season, the hope is that Flacco and a vastly improved defense would be capable of keeping the Bengals afloat.