Bengals' Joe Flacco gives promising injury update ahead of Bears game

A report earlier this week noted that Cincinnati Bengals starting quarterback Joe Flacco might miss Sunday's home game against the Chicago Bears (4-3). He suffered an AC joint sprain in his throwing shoulder during Cincinnati's Week 8 loss to the New York Jets. 

Flacco later practiced in full on Thursday, and he sounded confident about his availability while speaking with reporters on Friday. 

How is Joe Flacco feeling ahead of Bengals-Bears clash? 

"I've never really talked about injuries before, so I don't know what to say, but yeah, I feel good," Flacco explained, per Russ Heltman of Sports Illustrated. 

The Bengals are expected to be without Week 1 QB1 Joe Burrow until at least "mid-December" after he had surgery to repair the toe injury he suffered in Week 2. Temporary fill-in Jake Browning played poorly across three starts, all of which he lost, and the Bengals subsequently acquired Flacco from the Cleveland Browns on Oct. 7. 

Flacco likely would've led Cincinnati to consecutive wins if he and his offense hadn't been let down by the Bengals' defense during the Oct. 26 game against the Jets. On Friday, he indicated that the idea of skipping the Bears game to recover during Cincinnati's Week 10 bye never crossed his mind. 

"I didn't really give it much thought," Flacco said. "You're the quarterback, you know, and then you take it from there. So I think my initial instinct is always whatever we can do to get there and then adjust."

Joe Flacco felt "obligation" to try to keep Bengals in playoff hunt

Whispers suggest the Bengals might part ways with veteran pass-rusher Trey Hendrickson before the Nov. 4 trade deadline if they drop to 3-6 this weekend and get "exorbitant draft-pick compensation" in exchange for him. Understandably, Flacco had other things on his mind. 

"There's always a sense of obligation to go out there and be there for your team," Flacco added. "I missed my second son's birth (Sept. 2013) because I thought it was important for the quarterback to be out there. I didn't know I was going to miss it, like, it just so happened that he came on that day, but I do feel a sense of obligation being out there for the guys that you play with."

Shortly after Flacco wrapped up his remarks, ESPN BET had the 3-5 Bengals as 2.5-point home underdogs against the Bears.