The Cincinnati Bengals have spent most of the past three seasons with Jake Browning as their backup quarterback behind Joe Burrow. Browning’s best performances came in the 2023 campaign after Burrow went down with injury.
He stepped in and helped the team to four wins in its final seven games of the year. The Bengals called him back in 2025 when Burrow suffered a turf toe injury. This time the results were not as strong. Browning led the Bengals to a win in Week 2, but things fell apart in their next three outings.
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He completed 64.8% of his passes for 771 yards and threw six touchdowns to eight interceptions. The team responded by acquiring Joe Flacco from Cleveland before Week 6, and Browning eventually fell to third on the depth chart by the end of the season.
According to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, the Bengals decided not to tender restricted free agent quarterback Jake Browning ahead of free agency. Instead of staying with the team on a limited basis, Browning will hit the open market.
“The Bengals are not tendering RFA quarterback Jake Browning, who started 10 games over three seasons in Cincinnati, to relieve Joe Burrow. He will be a free agent. Cincinnati is open to bringing him back,” Fowler wrote in the X.
Browning’s journey to the NFL hasn’t followed a traditional path since leaving the Washington Huskies in 2019. The Minnesota Vikings signed him as a draft free agent, but he was released after the preseason. The Vikings brought him back to the practice squad, and the pattern was repeated several times.
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He signed a futures contract for 2020, but was waived after camp and spent a year on the practice squad before signing another futures contract heading into 2021. Minnesota cut him again after the 2022 preseason.
Browning then landed with the Bengals, but Cincinnati also initially waived him before adding him to their practice squad. The team promoted him to the active roster later that year. During Burrow’s 2023 injury, his opportunities expanded and the Bengals rewarded him with a two-year contract as an exclusive-rights free agent.
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