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After multiple weeks of suffering through the disastrous Jake Browning experiment, Ja’Marr Chase is excited to finally play with a competent quarterback again. His connection with Joe Flacco was immediately evident in the Cincinnati Bengals’ Week 7 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers, a point he reiterated afterward.
Flacco’s presence immediately elevated Chase, who posted a season-high 16 catches for 161 receiving yards and a touchdown against the Steelers. After the Bengals’ 33-31 upset victory, the reigning Triple Crown winner admitted how relieved he is that the team sought a quarterback like Flacco.
“It’s honestly good having him here for us,” Chase said, via ESPN. “[The] organization made a big jump on him. We believed in him. We got him. He came in, doing his thing and showing off for us.”
Chase has 255 receiving yards in two games with Flacco, nearly double the amount he managed in three games with Browning. He started to get going in his final game with Browning, a 110-yard performance against the Detroit Lions in Week 5, but by that point, the Bengals had already seen enough.
From Flacco’s perspective, he is not doing anything special. The veteran signal-caller gave all the credit to his two-time All-Pro wideout, saying all he does is put the ball in his hands.
“I don’t think it was anything crazy,” Flacco said, via Bengals.com. “Simple stuff. Underneath. That’s how we drew it up, and that’s how it worked out.”
Flacco led the team to 470 yards of total offense, nearly double as much as it averaged entering Week 7. He ended the game with 342 passing yards and three touchdowns, the most of any Bengals quarterback in 2025.
Flacco is now 1-1 with the Bengals, and 1-0 when he has a full week of practice with the team. He memorably started Week 6 against the Green Bay Packers just six days after getting traded from the Cleveland Browns.
Ironically, since he has thrived in Cincinnati, the Browns have struggled. Cleveland benched Flacco for rookie Dillon Gabriel, who has gone 0-2 in a pair of starts while completing just 57.3 percent of his passes and averaging a meager 4.8 yards per attempt.
While the Bengals undoubtedly want Joe Burrow back in action, Flacco has become an adequate interim option. His days of leading a Super Bowl-winning team through an 18-game season are over, but Flacco has already proven to be a substantial step up from Browning.
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