How Joe Burrow Helped Jake Browning Win the Backup QB Job for the Bengals

Jake Browning has never taken a snap in the regular season, but he’s played extensively in the last two preseasons for the Cincinnati Bengals. You could argue that he outplayed veteran Brandon Allen last summer, only to come up short in the battle to be Joe Burrow’s backup.

Jake Browning Outplayed Trevor Siemian for QB2

This year there is no argument. Browning definitively outplayed veteran Trevor Siemian, and there’s no reason to wait until Tuesday’s official announcement of the 53-man roster.

Browning will be on it.

“You’re never gonna play perfect, but I feel pretty good about what I put on tape, so we’ll see how this thing shakes out,” Browning said after Saturday’s 21-19 loss to the Washington Commanders.

“It’s always a good feeling to feel like you played well and put your best foot forward,” he added.

Browning directed the offense for 12 drives in the preseason, with half of them resulting in points — two touchdowns and four field goals. One of those touchdowns came on the offense’s first possession Saturday night, when Browning hit rookie receiver Andrei Iosivas for a 7-yard score to cap a 10-play, 61-yard drive.

“I thought he did a nice job leading us down the field,” head coach Zac Taylor said. “Second possession we had another big play, got called back. So I thought he had two good drives.”

The play Taylor referenced was a 19-yard pass to tight end Tanner Hudson on third-and-3 that was wiped out by a facemask penalty against guard Trey Hill. Had the play stood, the Bengals would have had a first down at the Washington 44, which already would have been on the edge of Evan McPherson field goal range.

Instead, the Bengals had third-and-18 and Browning threw a checkdown to rookie Chase Brown on his final attempt of the night.

Browning was 6-of-6 for 42 yards a touchdown for a passer rating of 135.4. In the three preseason games, he was 32-of-45 for 277 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions for a 75.9 rating.

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Siemian led 16 drives in the preseason, with four leading to field goals, including two of his five Saturday night. For the preseason, Siemian was 36-of-65 for 316 yards with two interceptions for a 55.7 rating.

Last year, it might have come down to trust more than performance, leading to Allen getting the job.

But this year, Browning came out ahead in both facets.

“It helps being my third year in this offense, watching Joe operate a lot and be really engaged the last couple of years on P squad and see how he operates and try to mimic it, because it obviously works for him,” Browning said.