If you’re a fan of the Cincinnati Bengals you may or may not have heard that your quarterback Joe Burrow is going to miss some time. He’ll be out roughly three months if you’re scoring at home.
So, the Bengals have some work to do and some decisions to make. Do they continue to ride it out with backup quarterback Jake Browning? The short answer is, for now, yes. But, surely a team that had high preseason aspirations won’t want to completely risk throwing the entire season into the toilet, so they’ll need to explore some other options in case Browning can’t carry the load.
John Breech of CBS Sports looks at some relatively obvious choices of who the Bengals could possibly acquire to keep the ship afloat until (if) Burrow returns sometime in December.
Could Atlanta Falcons QB Kirk Cousins replace Joe Burrow?
The Atlanta Falcons have been looking to move Kirk Cousins and his bloated, no-trade contract since shortly after they drafted Michael Penix in the 2024 NFL Draft. They couldn’t move him around the draft (and entire offseason if we’re being honest) and this might be the injury needed to do so.
Cousins has 13 years of experience under his belt, so he’s seen it all and he is probably the only guy out there who would be an immediately upgrade over Jake Browning,” Breech writes. “However, Cousins is coming off a 2024 season where he threw a career-high 16 interceptions and that came after a 2023 season where he missed nine games due to a torn Achilles. His last full season on the field came in 2022 when he threw for 4,547 yards while throwing passes to Justin Jefferson in Minnesota.
“The one downside with Cousins is that he won’t be cheap. His base salary this year is $27.5 million, but the Falcons have already paid two weeks of that, so the Bengals would owe him about $24.4 million for the rest of the 2025 season. Cousins also has a fully guaranteed $10 million option bonus due in March. The Bengals could look to trade him after the season before that bonus comes due, but if they weren’t able to, they’d be on the hook for $34.4 million to Cousins.
Notice that Breech says “he won’t be cheap” and then mentions absolutely nothing about trade compensation. It’s the Bengals. That contract will absolutely be the sticking point in any Cousins deal. If you don’t think so, then you aren’t a Bengals fan and you haven’t read this far anyway.
Los Angeles Rams QB Jimmy Garoppolo
Considering Matthew Stafford is 37-years old and had some back issues in training camp, I’m not sure the Rams would be dying to get rid of their reliable contingency plan.
If the Bengals want a quarterback who has actually been to the Super Bowl before, they could call the Los Angeles Rams about Jimmy Garoppolo,” Breech writes. “The veteran QB comes with two major upsides: He has plenty of big-game experience and he would also come dirt cheap. He’s on a one-year deal with a base salary of just $1.25 million, so the Bengals could easily let him walk after the 2025 season. The Bengals obviously wouldn’t be looking to make a long-term commitment with anyone, so they’d want to be sure they could easily get out of the contract of any QB they acquire.
That’s the sound of music playing in Mike Brown’s office. Did someone say “dirty cheap?!”
New York Giants QB Jameis Winston
The New York Giants have three viable starting quarterbacks on their roster. Here’s a trivia question: When’s the last time that happened? Russell Wilson was great on Sunday in the loss to the Dallas Cowboys and Jaxson Dart looks like he could be ready to start sooner rather than later. So, that leaves Jameis Winston as the odd man out.
Winston started seven games for Cleveland last season and although he went just 2-5, his two wins did come over the Steelers and Ravens,” Breech continues. He’s not afraid to sling the ball, which is something that could come in handy when throwing to a Bengals receiving group that includes Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins. Winston once led the NFL in passing yards and that came in 2019 when he threw for 5,109 during his final season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the team that originally drafted him.
Breech fails to mention that Winston also threw 30 interceptions in 2019, so there’s that to consider as well.
Three Outside Options for the Bengals to Replace Joe Burrow