Why isn’t Joe Flacco playing against the Cincinnati Bengals?

It seemed it was yesterday when the 2023-24 NFL started, but the truth is that four months have already passed and the competition is heading towards the end of the regular season.

The Browns will play in the NFL Week 18 against the Bengals before the regular season comes to a close in a game that won’t change Cleveland’s position in the AFC North division.

Kevin Stefanski’s team is sitting second in the section, with 11 wins and five losses, and can’t take the section’s top spot from the Ravens, as Baltimore have two more victories.

At the same time, their second position isn’t in danger, as the Browns have a two-win advantage over the Pittsburgh Steelers with only one game to go before the postseason.

Why won’t Joe Flacco play vs. the Bengals?

In normal circumstances, the Browns-Bengals clash would have been an interesting one, with Joe Flacco taking on Joe Burrow. However, Cincinnati’s top player got injured for the rest of this campaign and the New Jersey native won’t be on the pitch.

The reason why Flacco won’t play with his teammates is that there’s nothing at stake in the game against Cincinnati, so Stefanski prefers to sit him so that he can rest and avoid being injured before the playoffs.

But Flacco won’t be the only one who won’t be playing at Paycor Stadium, as Myles Garrett and Amari Cooper almost certainly will not either.

“We’ve earned the ability to do this, the flexibility to do something like this,” Stefanski said.

“We’re going to utilize it. We’re going to take advantage of it. But the guys understand that it’s important that we handle this week. We’ll worry about next week next week”, he added.

Flacco, who led the Baltimore Ravens to the title in Super Bowl XLVII, has started five games for Cleveland this season. He has become the first player in the NFL ever to have at least 250 passing yards and two touchdown passes in each of his first five matches with a new team.