{"id":34760,"date":"2025-10-06T23:23:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T23:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=34760"},"modified":"2025-10-06T23:23:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T23:23:15","slug":"bengals-decision-on-whether-to-bench-jake-browning-is-layered-with-variables-and-the-clock-is-ticking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=34760","title":{"rendered":"Bengals Decision on Whether to Bench Jake Browning is Layered with Variables, and the Clock is Ticking"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

CINCINNATI<\/strong> \u2013 The sentiment surrounding struggling Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Jake Browning has gone from \u201cunwavering\u201d support Wednesday to an evaluation stage Sunday to \u201cwe\u2019ll see\u201d today.<\/p>\n

Bengals head coach Zac Taylor did not say that Browning will start Sunday in Green Bay.<\/p>\n

Nor did he say Browning won\u2019t.<\/p>\n

The deadline to make the decision on Browning \u2013 who is 0-3 as a starter and has thrown eight interceptions in the previous last four games, including three in Sunday\u2019s 37-24 loss to the Lions \u2013 is less than 48 hours away.<\/p>\n

At 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, the Bengals will hold their first practice of the week, and Taylor made it clear the decision has to be made before the team walks across the street for the 105-minute session.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s just every rep is critical,\u201d he said. \u201cI mean, if you get two reps on a play during the course of the week, a pass play, that’s quite a bit. You know, two full speed reps. So it’s difficult to balance quarterbacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou’re in on one quarterback and need to get a move on,\u201d Taylor added. \u201cAnd you got to find ways to evaluate the other guys that are on the team in different ways, whether that’s on practice squad, whether that’s in group install period. You have to use every resource because it is very challenging during the season to get multiple guys reps, to evaluate how they’re going to look in your offense, with your receivers and the alignment and all that stuff. It’s just a real challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

The variables are plentiful.<\/p>\n

They start with Sunday\u2019s fourth quarter against the Lions, in which Browning threw three touchdown passes to dress up what had been a 28-3 deficit.<\/p>\n

Regardless of whether the Detroit players already had one foot in the showers at that point, Browning showed some glimpses of what he was able to do in 2023 to warrant one more start.<\/p>\n

Does that matter?<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody wants to hear that because if you don\u2019t win, nobody cares; including us,\u201d Bengals offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher said. \u201cYou care in that you take the next day, you try to remove the emotion, the disappointment and then look at it from a more scientific lens in what can we take that was positive? How do we build off of this?<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no moral victories,\u201d He continued. \u201cWe\u2019re not in that business. That doesn\u2019t give any of us much consolation. But we\u2019ll look at what we did well toward the end of that game, and we\u2019ll see what can translate moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another variable that could be in play is what we heard, not saw.<\/p>\n

Browning turned his postgame news conference into a therapy session, but he didn\u2019t stop at just accepting blame and harshly criticizing himself.<\/p>\n

His admission that mistakes are more mental than physical and born of frustration could give Taylor, Pitcher and the rest of the staff pause about whether he\u2019s in the right headspace to lead the offense.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a long conversation today,\u201d Pitcher said. \u201cYou feel for him. It’s something that most athletes can relate to going through, a similar stretch. It’s really difficult when you’re doing it in front of the world, and you’re not playing up to your own standards and having a hard time pulling yourself out of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou be there to support that guy, and because you trust in him and you believe in him, and you want to see him have success,\u201d Pitcher added. \u201cAll at the same time, you know, it’s a results-based deal. And you know the play has got to be better. He knows that, and you just try to help him through it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wide receivers Ja\u2019Marr Chase and Tee Higgins said they still have confidence in Browning after Sunday\u2019s loss.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a variable that carries considerable weight.<\/p>\n

Not only are they the best two healthy players on offense, they have hundreds of reps banked with Browning, not just in his seven-game starting stint in 2023, but in all of the training camp practices Burrow has missed with the appendectomy, calf and wrist injuries.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ll see where it goes,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cLike all personnel decisions, we’ve got to evaluate it. Jake’s been very accountable for how the game went for him. I’ve got to be accountable for how the game went for me as well. And so we’ll continue to progress here through the days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is the waffling legitimate uncertainty?<\/p>\n

Or is it simply gamesmanship as Taylor prepares to face his best friend in the NFL coaching fraternity, Matt LaFleur?<\/p>\n

Does backup Brett Rypien, who has been a member of the team for 40 days, have a good enough of a grasp on the offense.<\/p>\n

How long before Mike White or Sean Clifford, who were signed to the practice squad 20 days ago, would be considered options?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do try to create some opportunities to isolate them and let them kind of get things staged during practice to perform, which we’ve done over the years,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cAnd so we try to look for assistant position coaches a lot of times to work with those guys as well, to try to elevate their game, so that we’re making progress with them from a developmental standpoint as the season goes on. So that’s a critical part of \u2013 I hate saying the bottom part of your roster \u2013 but it’s those 16 guys on practice squad. You’re going to be counting on them at some point, and we don’t want them to go by the wayside.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs they’re running our scout teams, we try our best to use our terminology so they can picture that and they can apply it and we can evaluate them as they rep some of the things that we rep, so there’s a lot of lot that goes into that and trying to make sure that we fully evaluate when the situation occurs where we want to call somebody up that maybe we have acquired from somewhere else that wasn’t in our training camp or an offseason program, you feel like you got information that could give you your best guess on how they are going to perform.\u201d<\/p>\n

All of the variables likely go out the window if Browning gets the start Sunday and it looks like the last three weeks.<\/p>\n

The idea of changing quarterbacks on a short week with a Thursday game \u2013 as Week 7 will be with the Pittsburgh Steelers coming to town four days after the Bengals play the Packers \u2013 seems crazy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of things we\u2019ve grown into over the course of six years or whatever it has been. Jake has been there for five of those,\u201d Pitcher said. \u201cIt would be unrealistic to think somebody who hasn\u2019t been here, not saying you have to be here all five years to be able to do those things, but it\u2019s different.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the Bengals stick with Browning and the offense continues to struggle, 2-5 is a real possibility.<\/p>\n

If they make a change this week and it fails spectacularly, going back to Browning in a short week would be doable from a logistics standpoint.<\/p>\n

But Browning already is struggling with confidence, so how would a benching affect that dynamic?<\/p>\n

Contingencies aside, riding with Browning in Green Bay seems like the most likely choice.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously we’re battling through it right now as an offense,\u201d Pitcher said. \u201cAnd when you find yourself there, it’s hard. It feels like it’s going to take a Herculean effort sometimes, and that’s not necessarily true.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s really just a matter of making the plays that are in front of you,\u201d he added. \u201cI just think that that’s kind of where he’s at right now.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is it time for the Bengals to make a change at quarterback due to Jake Browning’s struggles? The answer isn’t easy or clearcut, and a deadline looms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34761,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cincinnati-bengals"],"yoast_head":"\nBengals Decision on Whether to Bench Jake Browning is Layered with Variables, and the Clock is Ticking - Breaking News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=34760\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bengals Decision on Whether to Bench Jake Browning is Layered with Variables, and the Clock is Ticking - Breaking News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Is it time for the Bengals to make a change at quarterback due to Jake Browning's struggles? 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