Joe Flacco Officially Starting, Bengals Will Be Without Top Defensive Player vs Bears

CINCINNATI — Bengals quarterback Joe Flacco is officially active and will start on Sunday against the Bears.

Flacco is playing, despite dealing with an AC joint sprain in his throwing (right) shoulder. He suffered the injury last week.

Bengals head coach Zac Taylor praised Flacco for his willingness to play through the injury. Flacco practiced on Thursday. The session was enough to convince him and the team that he'd be ready for Sunday's game.

"When you see leaders and guys you're counting on doing that, how can you not give your all for those guys?" Taylor said on Friday. "I know our record is what it is. I know some of the performances are what they are but the character in our locker room has been awesome to watch. These guys step up in practice these last three days, now we just got to transfer it to Sunday and go put a great performance together and find a win and just keep building momentum off of this."

Flacco has completed 64.3% of his passes for 784 yards and seven touchdowns in three starts with the Bengals. Cincinnati sent a 2026 fifth round pick to the Browns in exchange for Flacco and a 2026 sixth round pick. That trade has given Cincinnati renewed hope that they can turn their season around with Joe Burrow sidelined.

Sean Clifford will serve as the emergency third quarterback behind Flacco and Jake Browning. If both Flacco and Browning suffer injuries, Clifford is eligible to enter the game.

Bengals star pass rusher Trey Hendrickson is officially inactive due to a hip injury. Logan Wilson (calf) is also inactive. Hendrickson re-aggravated a hip injury in last week's loss to the Jets. Wilson suffered his calf injury on a special teams play. Neither player practiced this week.

Dalton Risner, Jermaine Burton, Cam Grandy and Marco Wilson are also inactive.

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