On Tuesday, the Cincinnati Bengals made a trade with their divisional rivals, bringing in quarterback Joe Flacco in exchange for draft compensation. The move comes amid major struggles from backup quarterback Jake Browning, who has taken over for the injured Joe Burrow to the tune of three straight losses.
On Wednesday, more details emerged about some of the other options that Cincinnati considered before centering on Flacco.
“I'm told that neither of the Giants veterans — Russell Wilson or Jameis Winston — were ever real possibilities, nor was Atlanta's Kirk Cousins. There was some chatter about Drew Lock in Seattle, Sam Howell in Philadelphia — guys like that. But teams aren't eager to trade from their QB depth,” reported Dan Graziano of ESPN.
Graziano also noted that “When Joe Burrow got hurt, the Bengals truly did believe that Jake Browning would be a capable fill-in and play better than he has over the past four games. They weren't intending to trade for a quarterback. But after a third straight loss, they spent Sunday and Monday calling around to pretty much any team that had more than two quarterbacks on its roster.”
Rough times for the Bengals
The Cincinnati Bengals came into this year aiming to start off strong after either going 0-2 or 1-1 for several seasons in a row. Funnily enough, they were able to do just that, knocking off the Browns and the Jacksonville Jaguars to open up their season.
However, Burrow was injured in that Cincinnati game and will miss a minimum of three months with a toe injury, which opened the door for Browning to take over, an experiment that has backfired in spectacular fashion so far.
There is a small amount of hope that if Flacco is able to keep the Bengals above water for the next several weeks, Burrow could perhaps come back at some point and make Cincinnati a dangerous opponent in the playoffs for anyone, but such a scenario feels more like a pipe dream than anything at the current juncture.
The Bengals will next take the field on Sunday on the road against the Green Bay Packers.
