Mike Tomlin has no words to explain his surprise that Joe Flacco is on the schedule with a second AFC North team on Thursday night.
The Steelers (4-1) beat the Cleveland Browns on Sunday with rookie Dillon Gabriel in the starting role that belonged to Flacco until two weeks ago. Now Flacco is the QB1 for the Cincinnati Bengals (2-4), who pried Flacco from Cleveland in a rare intradivision trade last week.
Tomlin was puzzled by Browns general manager Andrew Berry reversing course from Flacco starting the season as the No. 1 quarterback to trading him to the Bengals a month later.
“To be honest, it was shocking to me,” Tomlin said. “Andrew Berry must be a lot smarter than me or us. Because it doesn’t make sense to me to trade a quarterback you think enough of to make your opening-day starter to a division opponent that’s hurting in that area. But that’s just my personal feelings.”
Thursday gives Tomlin the chance to face Flacco as a starting quarterback again. Flacco is 11-11 in his career against the Steelers, including 21 games with the Baltimore Ravens. The 22nd game of his career against Pittsburgh was Sept. 29 last season, when, as a member of the Indianapolis Colts, he relieved injured Anthony Richardson after only four pass attempts.
With Cleveland, Flacco was benched with a league-leading nine turnovers through four games in 2025.
The Bengals were looking for a solution with Joe Burrow (toe) sidelined since Week 1 and backup Jake Browning under fire after three consecutive losses. He had eight interceptions in four games this season.
Flacco had two touchdowns and zero interceptions in his first start with Cincinnati on Sunday at Green Bay, a 27-18 loss. He completed 64.4% of his passes for 219 yards.
