At 5-5, the Bengals are still alive in the AFC playoff race.
But with Joe Burrow out for the season after suffering a wrist injury last Thursday night, backup quarterback Jake Browning has a big job to keep the offense afloat.
While Browning will make his first career start this weekend against the Steelers, the quarterback does have the benefit of time on task. Having entered the league in 2019 as an undrafted free agent out of Washington, Browning has been with the Bengals since 2021 when he first joined the team’s practice squad.
“I’ve been in this offense for a while,” Browning said in an interview with Geoff Hobson of the team’s website. “It’s not a Josh Dobbs situation where I’m showing up on a Tuesday, get thrown in on Sunday. I know the offense.”
Browning’s first regular-season NFL action came in Week 1 when he threw one pass toward the end of the blowout loss to Cleveland. His first completion and touchdown came last week when he went 8-of-14 for 68 yards. While he took three sacks, he also rushed for 40 yards on four attempts.
While Browning mentioned he’s not in the same situation as Dobbs, he did note that backup quarterbacks have had success this season and that speaks to their quality.
“But also I think as I watch some of those, it’s coaches calling plays to let them go win the game,” Browning said. “You watch some guys and you can tell they’re trying to protect the quarterback and call plays just so the quarterback doesn’t lose the game.
“That’s kind of been my thing to the coaches. ‘Hey, let’s call whatever plays are going to help us beat the Steelers,’ and not be as worried as much about whether they’re protecting me with certain play calls or trying to run the ball just to give me plays off or something like that. Let’s call plays to go win the game.”
We’ll see if Browning can make enough plays to defeat Pittsburgh on Sunday afternoon.
