Joe Flacco Reveals Intriguing Detail About Browns Approach Ahead of Trade With Bengals

The Bengals traded for Joe Flacco 13 days ago. It's a move that gave them a real chance to compete with Joe Burrow injured and it might've saved their season.

Cincinnati sent a 2026 fifth round pick to the Browns for Flacco and a 2026 sixth round pick.

Cleveland actually checked with Flacco before agreeing to the trade.

“Now I don’t know if they would’ve done it anyway, if I wasn’t interested. If I said, 'No, I really don’t want to do that, guys, I don’t know if they would’ve said, O.K., yeah, that’s cool, we won’t do it then,'” Flacco told Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer. “But it did seem like [GM] Andrew [Berry] was like,Listen, man, we appreciate what you’ve done. Would this be something you’d be open to? So we had a conversation about it, for sure.”

Flacco jumped at the chance to come to Cincinnati and play with Ja'Marr Chase, Tee Higgins and the rest of their weapons. Would be have been open to a trade to another team?

“That’s hard to answer,” Flacco told Breer less than 24 hours after leading the Bengals to a 33-31 win over the Steelers.

Flacco is off to an impressive start for Cincinnati. He started a game five days after the trade and led the Bengals to a win over the Steelers just nine days after the deal was complete. He's thrown for 561 yards and five touchdowns in two starts. He's completed 65.2% of his passes and has a 100.0 quarterback rating.

“Outstanding. Outstanding. Outstanding. Joe was outstanding," Bengals head coach Zac Taylor said after Cincinnati's Week 7 win over Pittsburgh. "I just thought his performance was outstanding. Very, very calm. Very collected. He led us in a two-minute drive to go in the game with a huge go-ball to Tee (Tee Higgins). It gave those guys a chance to go make some plays. I’m impressed with his performance."

Flacco is 1-1 as a starter with the Bengals and has Cincinnati in position to make a run with Burrow sidelined due to a grade 3 turf toe injury that required surgery.

Chase finished with a franchise record 16 catches in their Week 7 win over Pittsburgh. Higgins has 11 catches for 158 yards and one touchdown in two games with Flacco. He had 13 catches for 158 yards and two touchdowns in the Bengals' first five games of the season.

The Bengals have a chance to win the AFC North—thanks to a trade with their division rival—and Flacco approving the deal with Cincinnati.