Cincinnati Bengals Will Go Against Familiar Face in Season Opener Against Cleveland Browns

CINCINNATI — Joe Flacco will start for the Cleveland Browns in the regular season opener against the Cincinnati Bengals on September 7.

The Browns made the announcement on Monday afternoon.

Flacco was never really pushed in training camp, with a trio of Shedeur Sanders, Dillon Gabriel and Kenny Pickett also on the roster.

Flacco is 9-12 in 21 career starts against the Bengals. He's completed 447 of 749 (59.7%) passes for 4,522 yards, 21 touchdowns, 27 interceptions and posted a 71.3 passer rating over that span. He's averaging just 6.0 yards per attempt in those matchups.

The Bengals head to Cleveland hoping to start 1-0 for the first time since 2021. They've started the season 0-2 in each of the past three years, including a 24-3 loss to the Browns in Cleveland to start the 2023 season.

Head coach Zac Taylor is 1-5 in regular season openers. This will be a major early season test for the Bengals—a team that has made it clear they want to start fast this season.

"We talked about as a team, you know what that actually means, not just saying the term fast start," Taylor said in June. "Some of the stuff we'll just keep for our team meetings. But I do think you got to be specific with what our approach will be going forward, training camp, season, some things that we've identified that we think we can prove that in ways to, you know, start the season off on the right foot."

This is only the sixth time in Bengals' history that they'll face a quarterback that is 40 or older. They're 3-2 in those matchups. Their most recent one was against Tom Brady in 2022. The Bengals beat the Buccaneers 34-23 in Tampa Bay. They lost to Brady in 2019 34-13 when he was still a member of the Patriots.

Check out the Browns' official announcement and the quarterback data from all five previous natchups below:

This will be the sixth time in #Bengals history they've faced a starting QB who was 40 or older. pic.twitter.com/pCe0SFFQ4m
— Jay Morrison (@ByJayMorrison) August 18, 2025

Joe Cool leading the way 🫡

We've named Joe Flacco our starting quarterback.
— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) August 18, 2025

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