As if the Cincinnati Bengals didn’t have enough to worry about, they’ll be on injury watch for quarterback Joe Flacco ahead of the Nov. 2 home game against the Chicago Bears.

Following Flacco’s injury scare late in the Oct. 26 loss to the New York Jets in which he ultimately didn’t miss any snaps, head coach Zac Taylor on Oct. 27 said Flacco was considered day-to-day with a shoulder injury.

“We’ll see. We’ll take it day-to-day,” Taylor said. “It was a shoulder issue. He came back and so, again, sore today certainly. We’ll continue to work through the week.”

The injury appeared to result from Flacco being sacked by the Jets’ Will McDonald IV about halfway through the fourth quarter in the eventual 39-38 Bengals loss.

Flacco was tended to by trainers on-field as backup Jake Browning started to warm up. Flacco also attempted some passes on the sideline before retreating to the locker room and re-emerging in time for the final drive.

Taylor and Flacco indicated after the game they didn’t sense the injury hindered the player on Cincinnati’s next drive, which ended up being unsuccessful − and then New York ran out the game clock to win its first game of 2025.

“Just had something happen a little bit,” Flacco told reporters after the game. “Wasn’t feeling 100 percent. So just trying to make sure I was right.”

Flacco has only been a Bengals player for about three weeks, arriving via trade ahead of the Oct. 12 road game against the Green Bay Packers.

Since late in the first half of the loss to Green Bay, Flacco has operated Cincinnati’s offense at a high level and breathed life back into the season after significant struggles with Browning under center after Joe Burrow suffered an injury that will keep him out of game action until mid-December at the earliest.

In his three games with Cincinnati, Flacco hasn’t thrown an interception, has 784 yards passing (81-for-126) and seven touchdowns. The Bengals have scored 89 points in those games and are 1-2 during that span.