CINCINNATI (WXIX) - Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Flacco hasn’t even been with the team for a full month yet. Everyone is still really getting to know him.
So far, everything that he has done on the field and behind the scenes has been impressive.
First, he made his team debut five days after getting traded and played pretty well. Then four days after that, Flacco hung 342 yards on the Steelers in an AFC North win. Then one week after that, he turned in another big game and led the Bengals’ offense to a big performance that resulted in 38 points.
Now, Flacco has a banged up shoulder and is questionable for Sunday’s game against the Bears. The 40-year-old has already proven everything he needs to in the NFL. He just joined the Bengals. He could have made the decision at the start of the week to take this week and the bye week to get healthy.
Instead, he’s pushing through what could be a painful shoulder injury.
“You try to play,” Flacco said. “You’re the quarterback. You take it from there. My instinct is whatever we can do to get there.”
His new head coach couldn’t appreciate the effort any more.
“It would be easy (for him) to make decision that there’s no way I’m playing,” Zac Taylor said. “I’ve got an AC joint, we’ve got a bye week next week, so let’s just let this thing heal up. That has not been the communication he has given to me at all. Ultimately he may not be able to play, we may make that decision. For him just to want to put it out there for the team, he’s just a football player. That’s what he does. That certainly goes a long way with me.”
With the Bengals, Flacco grades out at the level of a top-10 quarterback. His .15 expected points added (EPA) per dropback ranks ahead of Matthew Stafford, Justin Herbert, CJ Stroud and Jalen Hurts. While the Jets’ pass defense hasn’t been very tough all season, Flacco’s other two starts this year have come against very well-regarded and talent-laden defenses in Green Bay and Pittsburgh.
His latest challenge is managing this shoulder injury. He’s listed as questionable for Sunday’s game against the Bears, but Flacco’s passes during practice on Thursday looked solid and he had an optimistic tone as he met with the media on Friday.
Flacco is a true pro. While he has never injured his shoulder before, he has worked his way through some similar situations to the one he’s in now.
In 2010, early in his career with the Ravens, Flacco opened the postseason with a road game against the Patriots.
“I had something on my hip that just kept blowing up,” Flacco said. “By the end of the year, my whole left leg was just destroyed. I was not moving well at all. That was an issue. It was something that you felt like was getting better. And then all of a sudden you land on it again, playing on turf or whatever, it was just the length that I had to deal with that.”
He called it the worst injury he has ever played through. And he played through it on a frigid 20 degree January day in Massachusetts.
Because it went on to be an unbelievable day for the Ravens’ running game, Flacco only had to throw the ball 10 times all game. The Ravens started the game with an 83-yard touchdown run as well as a sack fumble that was recovered by the Ravens inside of the Patriots’ 20-yard line. So by the time Flacco was even asked to attempt a pass, the Ravens had a 14-0 lead.
Flacco converted a 13-yard throw to set up a 1-yard touchdown run that gave the Ravens an early 21-0 lead. He finished the game with 34 passing yards on four completions. Still, he seems like a lot of pride in how he powered through that day and did what was needed to win. Even Tom Brady struggled completing a pass that day.
“We won the game,” Flacco said. “Anytime you go win a playoff game up in New England, it’s a good memory.”
Eight years later, Flacco suffered a hip injury in early November. It was 2018, and first-year quarterback Lamar Jackson was waiting in the wings.
“Looking back, I don’t know if I could have played,” Flacco said. “I probably couldn’t have, but I really wanted to. It took a lot of convincing, and I felt like there were ramifications to playing. And that was one instance I can remember where they did kind of take it out of my hands. I do think that’s important.”
By the time Flacco was ready to return, Jackson had taken the job. Flacco never played for the Ravens again.
“When people are doing that, when people are making those decisions and looking out for you, even if you don’t agree with it, and even if you don’t agree with it 10 years later, I think I’m still mindful enough to realize that they had my best interest in their heart,” Flacco said. “They weren’t trying to make a bad decision for me or anything like that. So even if five, 10 years later, I feel like it was the wrong decision, I wouldn’t hold that against them. They’re doing their job, and they’re trying to look out for a player, and I think that’s important to have.”
Now it’s 2025, and Flacco seems genuinely appreciative of the opportunity he has to still be a starting quarterback, to be in a high-powered offense and to be on the Bengals. Around the building, everyone seems to love him.
The ways he can draw from experience, his unflappability and his ability to go with the flow have been impressive traits. He also just seems like a good guy.
“This is an experience I probably will never have again, right?” Dan Pitcher said. “This guy is two years older than I am. I’m never going to really get to do this again. And so to see somebody as mature as he is, to have his perspective and how he’s approaches preparation at the position, and then just goes out and executes and maintains a level-headedness. I mean, it’s not easy to get to that point. It’s an affirmation of how important those things are to having the resilience to be able to perform at that position, which we all know is the hardest position in sports. So, yeah it’s been cool.”
If the Bengals had beaten the Jets and Cincinnati had a 4-4 record, Flacco would have made his way into the national spotlight this week as the leader of a Bengals’ team with a dynamic passing attack and playoff hopes that would have looked realistic.
Those chances look much less likely right now because of the problems on the Bengals’ defense that have been well documented here.
Flacco’s shoulder injury represents another obstacle that this team is facing, and there’s no way to know how he’s going to look on Sunday against the Bears. It’ll be a challenge for the Bengals’ offense to keep up its current pace going forward
There’s adversity coming up for the Bengals. Everyone sounds thrilled that Flacco is here to be the one handling it.
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