The NFL adopted a flex option for Thursday Night Football in 2023. On Friday, the league activated the break-glass option for the first time ever, bumping Browns-Bengals out for Broncos-Chargers.
While there’s no blanket ability for teams that get a Thursday shoulder tap to say no, the Broncos could have. Per the NFL, the league has a policy against giving a team two short-week road games in the same season. The league asked the Broncos if they’d been willing to make the shift and accept a second short-week road game. The Broncos agreed — even though it makes them the first team since the 1926 L.A. Buccaneers to play twice on the road on Thursday after playing on Sunday, via Josh Dubow of the Associated Press.
“It’s a road game anyway, right?” coach Sean Payton told reporters on Friday, when asked about the shifting of the game. “I like the fact that we have another opportunity. I remember this a long time ago, ‘Boys, we’d rather be flexed in than flexed out.’ It’s a real good team playing real good, and it flexes Cincinnati out who we play the following week. So there was a little. . . . But it is what it is, and they just tell us when we’re playing.”
Payton didn’t go into further detail about the Cincinnati angle. The reality is that the Bengals would have had three extra days to prepare for the Denver game. Now, the Broncos have three extra days. It’s a six-day swing when it comes to relative prep time.
Payton also was asked whether the flex shows that the Broncos have earned the right to play in bigger games.
“Yes, that’s a big game,” Payton said, “but we’ll play in bigger.”
It’s a great attitude. And it’s supported by the performance of rookie quarterback Bo Nix, who through 11 weeks quite possibly could be emerging as the best of the six quarterbacks taken in the first twelve picks — even though he was the last.
The NFL has issued its first-ever flex for Thursday Night Football.
The Week 16 matchup between the Browns and Bengals on Thursday, Dec. 19, has been swapped out for Broncos at Chargers, the league announced on Friday.
With the Browns currently 3-8 and the Bengals 4-7, the divisional matchup between 6-5 Denver and 7-3 Los Angeles would seem to have much more significant postseason implications.
NFL owners approved the proposal for flexing Thursday night games in May of 2023, but the league did not use it last year. Friday was the deadline for moving the Thursday night game in Week 16.
The Chargers and Broncos played their first divisional matchup this season in Week 6, with Los Angeles coming away with a 23-16 victory in Denver.
The Browns and Bengals will now play Sunday, Dec. 22 at 1:00 p.m. on Fox. The Bengals won their first matchup 21-14 on the road in Week 7.
The Browns landed in a major window for the first game of the regular season, serving as the backdrop for the debut of Tom Brady as a broadcaster. Since then, large football audiences haven’t been exposed to the Browns.
Which is good. They’re 2-8 and fading fast.
But now that the season is approaching the stretch run, here come the Browns. Starting tonight against the Steelers, Cleveland has FOUR prime-time games over the next six weekends.
Next week, the Browns visit the Broncos on Monday Night Football. In Week 16, it’s Browns at Bengals on Thursday night. The following week, the Dolphins visit the Browns on Sunday night.
While it’s too late to flex the Week 13 game, the next two are subject to being moved. Per league rules, however, the deadline for flexing Browns-Bengals is today. Which would be a less-than-ideal advertisement for tonight’s game.
Hey, folks, we know the Browns shouldn’t be on TNF in four weeks, so they won’t be. But, please, watch them on TNF tonight!
In Week 17, there are eight standalone windows that need to be filled with games. That will make it very hard to find a suitable flex into Sunday night, if the league chooses to do it.
So, basically, get ready to see more than you want to see of one of the worst team in the league.
Bengals cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt was benched on Sunday night, the second time this season he has taken a seat.
In Week 4, defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo cited sloppy technique and unnecessary risk taking by Taylor-Britt. On Sunday, Taylor-Britt’s inexplicable mistakes were responsible for the Chargers’ first two touchdowns.
“Things that he shouldn’t make a mistake on,” Anarumo said, via Jay Morrison of SI.com.
Justin Herbert’s 29-yard touchdown pass to tight end Will Dissly shouldn’t have happened, Anarumo said, because the Bengals went over the play multiple times during the week.
NBC cameras caught linebacker Germaine Pratt yelling at Taylor-Britt on the sideline afterward.
“That’s kind of what got everybody fired up a little bit,” Anarumo said. “We had shown that play a number of times. Germaine’s job is to hold the seam there, which he did a really good job of. And Cam should’ve been a little bit deeper and higher on that.
“He almost made the play. If he’s 3 or 4 yards deeper, he probably makes the play. And that’s the difference there.”
Taylor-Britt also was responsible for the 29-yard pass from Herbert to Quentin Johnston on the Chargers’ next possession.
“Just a simple pickup in coverage that’s he done right a million times, and it led to a touchdown,” Anarumo said. “They ran that – ‘Oh, shit’ is what we call it, because it kind of what it is, and he should be sitting right there.
“It’s just a simple pickup, but he got locked in on his guy that drained out of the way. But he should just let that guy go to the front side.”
The Bengals haven’t given up on Taylor-Britt, but they need him to play better.
“We’re going to need him now. Again,” Anarumo said. “He’s got to get back to being Cam.”
After Sunday’s loss to the Chargers, Bengals receiver Ja’Marr Chase said reporters should “ask Zac” about how the team needs to finish better in games.
In his Tuesday press conference, head coach Zac Taylor did not take issue with Chase’s comments.
“He’s emotional, and when you got a guy that works as hard as he does, leaves it all on the field, I do think things — I don’t want to say ‘misconstrued’ — but can look differently than what they really are,” Taylor said, via Jay Morison of SI.com.
“He’s a guy that is one of the most genuine players I’ve ever been around and honest, insightful, puts it all out there for us. … I don’t have problems with guys that work as hard as they do, speaking with emotion after the game, speaking with passion.”
While Taylor didn’t disclose whether or not he and Chase had spoken about the comments, the head coach did note that the two are on the same page.
“[A]ppreciate the work he puts in and sometimes postgame it’s emotional, and that’s the way it is,” Taylor said.
Taylor added that he doesn’t feel some kind of way about Chase’s comments, “Because there’s not a non-relationship there with the player.”
“These are things that we try to be proactive about, to put these guys in the best position possible to succeed,” Taylor said. “And I feel very confident we put Ja’Marr in the best position possible to succeed. He’s first in every category there is. We make a conscious effort to involve him and make sure he’s always a big part of that.
“I always love the dialogue with him in terms of gameplan, how we’re going to use you. … I think he’s come a long way. He’s not a captain with it on his chest, but in so many ways, he acts like one. So again, I don’t ever hold against a player when they’re after a game having an emotional response.”
Through 11 games this season, Chase leads the league with 73 catches, 1,056 yards, and 12 touchdowns. But Cincinnati’s 4-7 record is the clear source of Chase’s frustration, as the receiver noted after the game.
“Love working with him. Thankful that he’s on our team,” Taylor said. “Love everything he brings to the table. Love the energy he brings, and [he] just wants to win. We all want to win, and you put a lot of pressure on yourself. And when you don’t, it can lead to frustration. But I feel very confident we’re on the same page and we’ll be good going forward.”
Linebacker Markus Bailey will not be available to the Cardinals for their next six games.
The NFL announced that Bailey, who is on the practice squad in Arizona, has been suspended six games for a violation of the league’s performance-enhancing drug policy. He will be eligible to return for the final game of the regular season.
Bailey has appeared in one game for the Cardinals this season. He played 16 snaps on special teams in that appearance.
Bailey was a 2020 seventh-round pick by the Bengals. He had 73 tackles, a half-sack, and four passes defensed during his time in Cincinnati.
Former Patriots cornerback Marco Wilson is on to Cincinnati.
Tom Pelissero of NFL Media reports that the Bengals have claimed Wilson off of waivers. The Patriots cut Wilson on Monday in order to make room for cornerback Alex Austin’s return from injured reserve.
Wilson played 206 defensive snaps in 10 games for the Patriots this season. He had 15 tackles and a pass defensed in those appearances.
Wilson also played in one game for the Patriots in 2023 and the 2021 fourth-round pick opened his career by playing in 43 games for the Cardinals. He had 158 tackles, three interceptions, 19 passes defensed, and three forced fumbles in Arizona.
Put down the pitchforks and torches. They won’t do any good.
We surmised last week, in an item about the potential flexing of upcoming Cowboys games out of key windows, the Week 14 Monday night game between the Bengals and Cowboys won’t be going anywhere, thanks to Homer. And Bart. And Marge. And Lisa. And Maggie. And the rest of the people who live there, in Springfield.
As noted by Jay Morrison of SI.com, the game isn’t eligible to be moved because of the artwork, voiceovers, and other work that has already been done for the alternate broadcast.
Even without the Simpsons extravaganza, the bar is very high for a flex. Even higher for a Cowboys game.
Indeed, the Bengals-Cowboys game was picked due to the extremely high unlikelihood that it would have been flexed, in any event.
So with the Bengals 4-7 (and possibly 4-8 at kickoff) and the Cowboys at 3-6 (and possibly 4-8 or 3-9 at kickoff), it will still be Bengals-Cowboys three weeks from tonight.
Even with the expanded ability to flex, with Monday night and Thursday night joining Sunday night as of last year, the increased number of standalone windows — and the proliferation of bad teams in 2024 — will make it hard to fill up the one-game-only windows with good games.
As recently noted, Week 17 has EIGHT standalone windows, along with the 4:25 p.m. ET game on Fox.
The solution to that issue isn’t more games. It’s more teams. And once the league figures this out, get ready for the emergence of reports that the league is considering expansion to 34 teams. Or 36. Or 38. Or 40.
The Bengals lost a game on Sunday night and it looks like they also lost a key piece of their secondary.
Cornerback DJ Turner suffered an injury in the 34-27 loss to the Chargers and Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that the team fears Turner fractured his clavicle. Turner is getting further evaluation on the injury Monday and his season will be over if the diagnosis is confirmed.
Turner has played in all 11 games for the Bengals this season and he started the last six contests. He has 29 tackles, a tackle for loss, and eight passes defensed this season.
Cam Taylor-Britt, Mike Hilton, Josh Newton, and DJ Ivey were the other corners for the Bengals on Sunday.
Thoughts of past failures may have been in the mind of Chargers fans when the team blew a 27-6 lead in the second half of Sunday night’s game against the Bengals, but the end result was different this time around.
The Bengals tied the game in the fourth quarter, but they could not pull ahead and they punted the ball back to the Chargers with under a minute left to play. It took three plays for quarterback Justin Herbert to move them into range for a game-winning field goal.
Herbert hit Ladd McConkey with two passes that picked up 56 yards and left the Chargers on the Bengals’ 29-yard-line. Running back J.K. Dobbins took care of the remaining yardage for a game-winning touchdown and then paid tribute to Herbert, who finished with 297 passing yards and a team-high 65 rushing yards, when the game was done.
“Start the MVP talks,” Dobbins said, via Kris Rhim of ESPN.com.
Herbert may not be in position for that award yet, but a few more nights like Sunday will put him firmly in the running for that award because the Chargers will be among the contenders for the AFC title. That’s a big change from last year and the Chargers hope it is a lasting one.
