The Green Bay Packers will see an out-of-division quarterback for the second time this season, but they can't let Joe Flacco trip them up

The Green Bay Packers have to beat the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 6 of the 2025 NFL season. There's just no two ways about it, and the re-insertion of Joe Flacco into the Packers' pathway can't impact anything.

Sure, Flacco is technically the only quarterback who has beaten the Packers this season. Jared Goff and Jayden Daniels couldn't and Dak Prescott put up an MVP effort but came away with a tie. 

To be fair, it was the Cleveland Browns' defense and special teams that really won that Week 3 game against the Packers, but as the quarterback, Flacco still gets the credit when things go well. Let's just forget about the fact that he completed only 21-of-36 passes for 142 yards and no touchdowns with an interception to Xavier McKinney.

The truth of the matter is that until the Bengals traded for Flacco, the Packers were expecting a Joe Burrow-less Bengals team led by Jake Browning at quarterback. That's the same Jake Browning who has thrown for just six touchdowns compared to eight interceptions this season.

There's absolutely a difference between facing Browning, a career backup, and Flacco, a former Super Bowl winner and Super Bowl MVP. So what if Flacco is 40 years old? So what if he has less than a week to get to know the Bengals' offense.

"I'd say that Joe Flacco has been playing this game for a really long time and he's been in a lot of different systems, so I'd bet that he'd have no problem picking it up in a short period of time," Packers head coach Matt LaFleur said on Wednesday (h/t CBS Sports). "I think the hardest thing for them is going to be the nuances of your cadence, your snap count, the rapport you have with the other players. Now, he's pretty fortunate, he has some good guys to certainly throw to."

Those "good guys" LaFleur is talking about are Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, who are both studs. Flacco didn't have that in Cleveland, and he's still got an arm on him.

It doesn't matter, though. The Packers have to win this game if they want to be legitimate Super Bowl contenders. The Packers have the talent to win a Super Bowl on both sides of the ball, but what's going on between their ears is the big question right now. 

Flacco can't be barrier between this team and its goals. If he is, this season is doomed before it's really even begun.