The Cincinnati Bengals, the Green Bay Packers’ next opponent, lost 37-24 at home to the Detroit Lions on Sunday. That score included a lot of garbage time scores, as the Bengals scored three touchdowns
in the fourth quarter once the Lions were already up 28-3.
The first eight drives for Cincinnati’s offense went as such: punt, punt, interception, punt, interceptions, field goal, interception and punt.
Obviously, for a Packers team that has been short on turnovers defensively, the prospect of playing backup quarterback Jake Browning, who has thrown eight interceptions in four games this year, is enticing.
Whenever a backup quarterback throws that many picks, though, the obvious question comes up: Is he going to get benched for the next game?
Bengals head coach Zac Taylor was asked that following the loss to the Lions. According to Paul Dehner Jr. of The Athletic, here was Taylor’s response:
I do. Of course, after a game like that we’re going to look at all personnel to make sure we are doing the right thing. I won’t shy away from that because it’s a very fair question after the amount of turnovers we had. To say that I don’t think Jake can win games for us – I believe Jake can win games for us. I do. We’ll just continue to look at everything we can, personnel-wise.
As Dehner described it, “the answer was supportive, but not definitive.”
Beyond Browning, the only other quarterback on Cincinnati’s 53-man roster is Brett Rypien, a Week 3 practice squad call-up who has thrown just four touchdowns to nine interceptions since entering the league as an undrafted free agent in 2019. The Bengals do roster two practice squad quarterbacks, which is rare in the NFL: Sean Clifford and Mike White.
Clifford, notably, was with the Packers from 2023, when he was drafted in the fifth round, until roster cutdowns in 2025, when Green Bay elected to move on and sign Clayton Tune as an outside practice squad quarterback.
According to Ourlads, only two teams have multiple quarterbacks on their practice squad in the NFL. The other, besides the Bengals, is the Las Vegas Raiders. The Raiders likely made this decision because they traded for their backup quarterback, Kenny Pickett, on August 25th. Meanwhile, Cincinnati needs bodies at quarterback, not because of practice-squad quarterbacks’ experience in the system or their backup quarterback’s lack of experience in the system, but because they might burn through all of their options by season’s end.
So, who will play quarterback for the Bengals next weekend? Probably Browning, but Taylor left the door open for someone else. That someone can be any of Rypien, Clifford or White at this point.
Either way, whoever is under center for Cincinnati will not be 1 of the 32 best quarterbacks walking this earth.
