Football
A breath of fresh air has wafted through Cincinnati, as the Bengals have officially put their money where their mouth is: 2025 is not going to be a tank year, and they fully intend to try and make the playoffs without Joe Burrow under center. With all of their chips in on this current core, Jake Browning clearly wasn’t getting the job done (0-3 as a starter), leading to an in-division trade with the Cleveland Browns for the recently benched Joe Flacco.
But what does this mean for your fantasy team? Does Joe Flacco make any waves on the Bengals, outside of a whiff of new energy in the building? What about Dillon Gabriel in Cleveland? Well, if you look at the numbers, you might be more surprised than you think — these are the biggest fantasy football risers in the wake of the Flacco trade.
1. WR Tee Higgins, Cincinnati Bengals
Flacco is many things as a quarterback, but mistake-prone is not one of them. He is exchanging similarly weak offensive lines, but will be upgrading his receivers from a corps that’s top five in drops and drop rate to Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins. And for someone who checks down as much as Flacco does, Higgins’ new prospective role as a slot receiver for Cincinnati means he’ll be eating way better catching passes from Flacco.
2. RB Chase Brown, Cincinnati Bengals
Speaking of checking down, Chase Brown owners must be wailing in relief at the Flacco news. Coming off of a 2024 season in which he seemed like a true bell-cow RB1, the Bengals did nothing to deepen their running back rotation around Brown, leading to an ADP of RB10 going into 2025. Instead, Cincinnati seems to have forgotten how to use him, and Brown wasn’t targeted much until Week 5. Compare that to Flacco, who has never targeted his committee of running backs less than six times per game. Brown’s effectiveness as a receiver at the running back position returned to the limelight in Week 5, and with Flacco under center, that momentum should continue.
3. TEs David Njoku/Harold Fannin, Jr., Cleveland Browns
It’s hard to know if anyone on Cleveland’s roster is affected too much by Flacco’s absence, but their two tight ends are certainly where you’d start if you caught any of their Week 5 loss to the Vikings. Both were hyper-efficient with their targets (6/9 for Njoku and 4/4 for Fannin), and both walked away with a touchdown each. On the other end of the offense, Isaiah Bond and Jerry Jeudy remained terrible wide receivers in Week 5, going for a combined 4/12 catches.
Head coach Kevin Stefanski swears that Jeudy was to be more involved in the offense going forward, but it’s clear that Gabriel has chemistry with his two lead tight ends. If I had to pick one, I’d go with the hotter hand of David Njoku (TE7 for Week 5), but both are probably startable and fully deserving of permanent roster spots with Gabriel under center.
Read More Rebecka Kucera