Bears are once again faced with QB issues outside of the team’s control that could lead to massive implications for Week 9
The status of Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Flacco will be something to watch.
All of last week, the Chicago Bears were watching the injury reports going into the Week 8 matchup against the Baltimore Ravens eyeing the status of Ravens’ former MVP quarterback Lamar Jackson, and what a headache of a story that turned into.
Following Friday’s practice, the Ravens listed Jackson as a full participant and the Bears entered into the weekend expecting to face the dynamic quarterback. But, on Saturday, it was reported that Jackson actually practiced with the scout team on Friday, forcing the team to drop his participation status to “limited” according to league rules and soon after he was ruled out for Sunday’s game.
The league is still investigating that wild sequence of events and after losing to the Tyler Huntley-led offense, Bears head coach Ben Johnson was asked if the situation played any role in the team’s preparation going into the game.
“Like I said earlier in the week, we were preparing for Lamar,” Johnson explained. “When we found out he wasn’t going to play, we got ready for the next guy.”
The next guy, Huntley, finished the game 17/22 passing for 186 yards and one touchdown while adding 53 rushing yards on eight attempts against the Bears. Now, looking ahead to Week 9, Chicago could have another quarterback issue to worry about that’s outside of the team’s control.
Joe Flacco’s status for Week 9 is up in the air due to shoulder injury
On Sunday, the Bears will face another AFC North opponent on the road against the Cincinnati Bengals. Last Sunday, Bengals’ recently acquired quarterback Joe Flacco suffered a shoulder injury that required him to get checked out in the locker room, but he did not miss any snaps.
Bengals head coach Zac Taylor confirmed Flacco would be day-to-day with the shoulder injury and on Wednesday, NFL insider Ian Rapoport added more context to Flacco’s situation.
“Bengals QB Joe Flacco is dealing with an AC joint sprain in his throwing shoulder & his status is up in the air for Sunday vs the Bears, sources say,” Rapoport shared on X.
The difference between the Bengals offense with Flacco at quarterback vs. Jake Browning was extremely notable since starting quarterback Joe Burrow was added to the injured reserve, and explains the reason the Bengals went out to trade for the veteran arm.
In two games with Flacco at quarterback, the Bengals have averaged 29.7 points per game and 261.3 passing yards per game. With Browning starting at quarterback, the Bengals averaged 12.3 points per game and 172. passing yards per game. Just look at the three game sample size as the team’s starter for comparison.
| Comp Pct | Passing YPG | Passing TD | INTs | Sacks Taken | |
| Joe Flacco | 64.3% | 261.3 | 7 | 0 | 8 |
| Jake Browning | 64.1% | 172.0 | 4 | 5 | 8 |
This is a noticeable difference and having to worry about an opposing quarterback’s practice status for the second week in a row only adds even more headaches for the Bears to deal with in Week 9.
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