Zac Taylor had Joe Flacco in his office last Wednesday and he was going through a call sheet, giving his new quarterback the new language he’d be expected to speak fluently four days later at Lambeau Field. And then the volume of the Bengals’ new quarterback’s mental football library was, almost by accident, put on display for the head coach.
“This is Fenway,” Taylor said, a call the coach got from his father-in-law, former Packers coach Mike Sherman, named in reference to Sherman’s Massachusetts roots.
“Yup, I’ve had that one,” Flacco responded.
How was that possible? Well, in 2023, Flacco’s offensive coordinator in Cleveland was Alex Van Pelt. Van Pelt was Taylor’s quarterbacks coach in Cincinnati in 2019, and brought the call with him to the Browns when Kevin Stefanski hired him in Cleveland in 2020.
That’s just one example of many that allowed Taylor to stand confidently at his press conference that same day and declare Flacco the starter before he’d even had a full practice as a Bengal, less than 24 hours after the team traded for him. And Thursday night, the 40-year-old quarterback will make his debut in Cincinnati colors at Paycor Stadium, a place he’s visited plenty of times over the years, this being the 13th season he’s spent in the AFC North.
After facing the Steelers, he and the team will get a chance to catch their collective breath and reset a little after a wild 10-day stretch. With that in mind, I figured there was a good opportunity here to recap how all of it came to be …
How the Bengals picked Flacco
After being blown out at home by the Lions in Week 5, Taylor and his offensive coaches sat down to discuss a bucket of quarterbacks that could be upgrades—guys who were good No. 2s behind strong No. 1s, No. 3s with some experience, or young guys with promise. On the list, culled by Duke Tobin and the personnel department were Stetson Bennett, Derek Carr, Kirk Cousins, Tommy DeVito, Flacco, Jimmy Garoppolo, Josh Johnson, Drew Lock, Tanner McKee, Davis Mills, Anthony Richardson, Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston.
The coaches narrowed the list to five, with the goal being to find the best guy to keep the team in the AFC playoff race for long enough to give Joe Burrow a chance to return with something to play for. Flacco emerged as the most viable option. He was affordable, yes. But it was more than that—his ability in the dropback game would allow the staff to run the closest thing to a Burrow offense, which in turn would maximize the talent on hand. All that AFC North experience was a factor, too, with the Bengals still having five division games left.
Welcoming Flacco in
Early in the afternoon of Oct. 7, the Bengals made the deal with the Browns. At the time, OC Dan Pitcher, quarterbacks coach Brad Kragthorpe, pass-game coordinator Justin Rascati and receiver coach Troy Walters were in their normal Tuesday game-planning meeting, with the players off. Taylor popped his head in to inform them of the trade.
After finishing the meeting, Pitcher, who’d already watched games on the five “finalist” trade targets, dove into every play the Browns’ offense had run in 2025. He found plenty of carryover in how Stefanski’s offense was spacing the field and progressing pass concepts with Flacco running the show to what Cincinnati was already doing, which he figured would ease the transition.
Flacco, meanwhile, got a FaceTime call from Taylor. The two didn’t know each other outside of a postgame hello or two, so there was no time to waste on their football version of speed dating. Taylor sent Flacco the team’s call sheet from the Lions game, and immediately dove in on the offense’s formations and motions.
At that point, Taylor already knew that he’d start Flacco in Green Bay.
Flacco arrived in the building at around 8 p.m. on Tuesday. With Pitcher and Kragthorpe still knee deep in game planning, Taylor and Flacco spent an hour and a half together, going through tape and trying to accelerate Flacco’s learning curve, giving him enough to be functional at the team’s Wednesday practice.
At about 10 p.m., the offensive coaches came out of game planning and saw Flacco, who was very clearly energized by the opportunity after being benched as a Brown. The next morning, a little more than 12 hours after first setting foot in the building, he was spitting out play calls in the team’s walkthrough. Through the week, the coaches told him to feel free to ask for a play call back if he didn’t quite get one the first time, or turn down one he may not be completely comfortable with. He barely needed to.
Preparing for the Packers
From there, Flacco had a relatively normal work week, stealing away time when it worked for everyone involved—meeting with coaches outside of scheduled meetings some—as to not upset the balance of the preparation for the team.
Joe Burrow was back in the building last week rehabbing, so Flacco got some time around the Bengals’ starter. Jake Browning, to his credit, after his own benching, was helpful. And during lunch, through the week, he and center Ted Karras took their food into the film room to go through protection calls and adjustments the team made in the Lions game, so they’d be on the same page as the offense’s chief on-field communicators.
By Sunday, 85% to 90% of the offense was in, and Flacco’s wristband had what Burrow’s or Browning’s would have on it—calls for special situations such as third downs or in the red zone, with just a couple of reminders added in.
The wild thing? Flacco, on the road against a top defense, running the offense for much of the game with a silent cadence, kept getting better as the game wore on.
One moment that stood out
The coolest moment for the staff came in the fourth quarter, with 5:38 left, and the Bengals furiously trying to come back. It was second-and-3 from the Packers’ 46, and Cincinnati was in a three-by-one formation, with Ja’Marr Chase on his own to the right. Seeing Green Bay pressure coming and the safety cheating to Chase’s side, Flacco flashed a hand signal to his star receiver to run a back-shoulder fade. That would isolate Chase on corner Keisean Nixon, with the ball toward the sideline and away from the safety.
It drew a flag, moved the chains and helped set up a touchdown that gave Cincinnati a chance at the end, faint as that chance might have been. And now, four days later, without a practice in between, Flacco will try again to give the Bengals a spark, with the Jets and Bears on the schedule over the next two weeks and Burrow still a couple of months away from returning.
As for what Flacco’s already brought them? After the last 10 days, it’s pretty clear he’s given them a lot more hope than they had.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Inside the Bengals’ Accelerated Plan to Prep Joe Flacco.