Bengals Add Josh Johnson as Burrow's Back Injury Clouds Sunday Start
Cincinnati elevated the 40-year-old Johnson as insurance, with Burrow officially questionable and Joe Flacco next in line.
Questionable with a back injury — check inactives before you lock him in.
- Burrow listed questionable with a back injury
- Johnson elevated as emergency No. 3 QB
- Flacco next in line, 149 PPR pts in 2025
- Burrow: 17 TD, 5 INT over 8 games in 2025
- Johnson signed with Cincinnati in March
The Bengals bumped 40-year-old quarterback Josh Johnson up from the practice squad to the active roster Sunday, and that move tells you plenty. Officially, Joe Burrow is questionable with a back injury. Unofficially, Cincinnati just made sure it has a warm body behind Joe Flacco if Burrow can't go.
The plan, as it stands, is straightforward: Burrow starts, Flacco backs him up, and Johnson sits as the emergency No. 3. Burrow has been productive when healthy this year — 1,809 passing yards, 17 touchdowns and just 5 picks across 8 games in the 2025 season, worth 135 PPR points and a run of form trending up (+3.1 fantasy points over his last five versus his season average). But a questionable tag on a back issue is never something you shrug off.
Johnson is a fascinating footnote here. He signed with the Bengals in March, missed the 53-man cut, then re-signed to the practice squad. He's arguably the most-traveled player in pro football history, with roughly two dozen contracts across the NFL and elsewhere. His calling card is picking up offenses fast and not embarrassing anyone when pressed into duty — but Cincinnati is very much hoping his number never gets called.
For fantasy purposes, Johnson is noise. He sits at QB50 in our rankings with 24 PPR points across 5 games in the 2025 season. Nobody's streaming a third-string 40-year-old. The name that actually matters if Burrow is out is Flacco.
The Flacco Contingency
Flacco is QB27 in our rankings (#107 overall) and put up 149 PPR points over 13 games in the 2025 season — 2,479 yards, 15 touchdowns, but a costly 10 interceptions. His recent form is a red flag: he's down 7.2 fantasy points per game over his last five compared to his season average. If he inherits this offense, he's a matchup-dependent QB2 at best, not a set-and-forget answer.
Bottom line: don't panic-drop Burrow, but don't blindly lock him in either. Watch the inactives and the Friday-into-Sunday practice reports closely. If he's ruled out, Flacco becomes a desperation streamer in a jam — and Johnson stays exactly where he belongs, on your bench and off your radar.
