Teams rarely trade quarterbacks during the season. You almost never see division rivals trade players regardless of position. And there has never been a trade between the Cincinnati Bengals and Cleveland Browns. Before Tuesday, anyway.
The Bengals felt they had to make a move after the offense cratered following Joe Burrow’s injury, and there are usually no decent quarterbacks available in October. But the Browns didn’t have any use for Joe Flacco after benching him, Flacco presumably would rather start than sit on the bench, and so that led to a dance between some unusual trade partners. on Tuesday Flacco was traded by Cleveland along with a sixth-round pick to Cincinnati for a fifth-rounder.
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It’s one of the weirder trades in recent memory, considering it includes a quarterback who was starting a little more than a week ago switching teams and going to a division rival. It might be historically weird in another way if Flacco leads a win over the Packers on Sunday.
While it is very unlikely a 40-year-old Flacco saves the Bengals season, he at least can make the offense more watchable than it has been for three weeks. And it didn’t cost them much. And for the Browns, they can fully invest in a new quarterback situation while getting a small bump in the 2026 NFL Draft. It doesn’t seem there is a clear loser among the two teams in the deal. There just might not be any big winners either.
Quarterback Joe Flacco (15) could get a chance to start later this season against the Browns, who traded him to the Bengals on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Kareem Elgazzar)
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
However, beyond the team level, there are some winners and losers for a wholly unexpected trade:
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WINNERS
Dillon Gabriel: The trade seems to be a bit of a vote of confidence in Gabriel, though after he played pretty well against the Vikings in his first career start last week, it wasn’t like he was in danger of losing his job back to Flacco anytime soon.
Still, this is an indication that the Browns liked what they saw from the third-round rookie. He wasn’t perfect but he ran the offense well against a tough defense. It’s a good sign for the Browns and Gabriel that they were willing to trade Flacco for very little return. However, Gabriel now has a much bigger name right behind him on the depth chart.
Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins (and fantasy teams with them): Chase and Higgins are two of the best receivers in the NFL. It hasn’t mattered much the past few weeks with Jake Browning struggling. At one point Sunday, Chase had four receptions and three tackles, due to Browning interceptions. Those two star receivers were headed towards being almost irrelevant this season.
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Suddenly, they have some hope at better production. Flacco is very unlikely to be great, but he has a better chance to elevate players around him (let’s include running back Chase Brown too) more than Browning was. Maybe Flacco won’t be that big of an upgrade. The 1-4 Browns benched him and traded him within the division after all. But at least Chase and Higgins have some hope now of turning their seasons around.
Shedeur Sanders: Sanders was the Browns’ fourth quarterback at the end of the preseason. Fourth-string quarterbacks sometimes find their way into playing time due to injuries or players ahead of them being demoted, but a lot has to happen and it’s pretty rare. The path isn’t so long for second-string quarterbacks, which Sanders apparently is for the Browns now.
Unless the Browns make a move for a veteran and place him above Sanders on the depth chart, Sanders has gone from QB4 to QB2 in the matter of a few weeks. In very short time, Sanders has gone from a long shot to play this season to being very close to getting on the field. That’s all he can ask for.
However, Sanders being one step away from playing means …
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LOSERS
Managing the Sanders discourse: If the Browns wanted to slow down the sometimes overwhelming conversation surrounding Sanders, elevating him to QB2 won’t do that.
Sanders is presumably Gabriel’s primary backup after Flacco was traded. That means he’s one injury away from playing. We’re also one bad Gabriel game (or half … or quarter … or play) from a very loud freakout that Sanders should be starting. Sanders has arguably gotten more attention than any other fifth-round rookie in history. That has to be a distraction for the Browns at times. And now it will get louder. That isn’t perfect for Gabriel either. It also probably helped him to have a veteran like Flacco around to be a mentor. It’s a young Browns quarterback room now.
Gabriel could play very well all season and it never becomes an issues. Most likely, Browns coach Kevin Stefanski should start preparing for some Sanders questions in the very near future.
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Falcons, Giants and any other team hoping to trade a QB: Very few teams want to trade their backup quarterbacks. They value those players and might need them later in the season. The Giants and Falcons might have been exceptions.
The Giants have two veterans backing up Jaxson Dart, and that’s unnecessary. Would they have traded Russell Wilson or Jameis Winston? We might never know, because the Bengals were one of the few teams that were obviously in the market, and now they’re not anymore. The Falcons also could have entertained a deal to get Kirk Cousins off their books, but that’s off the table now at least with the Bengals. Maybe there will be other opportunities before the deadline.
Zac Taylor: It seems like the Bengals coach should benefit from having Flacco. He’s an upgrade over Jake Browning, right? Well, maybe. Over the last two seasons Flacco has played 12 games, starting 10. He has 14 touchdowns and 13 interceptions with a passer rating of 78.6, which would rank him among the NFL’s worst starting quarterbacks. The Colts benched him last season to turn back to Anthony Richardson. The Browns benched him a week ago to try third-round rookie Gabriel. There’s a reason the Browns didn’t mind trading him in the division, with a game against the Bengals yet to go this season. That’s telling.
What if Flacco, who is 40 years old, doesn’t look much better than Browning? It wouldn’t reflect well on Taylor, whose Bengals have been failing Joe Burrow. The Bengals are just 16-13 in Burrow’s starts over the last three seasons. If the Bengals can’t be a playoff team with Burrow playing at an MVP level like last season, Browning struggles badly this season and then a newly acquired Flacco struggles badly too, Taylor would be the common thread.
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