Following Joe Burrow’s injury that he sustained on Sunday, the Bengals have promoted QB Brett Rypien from the practice squad to the active roster.
Rypien was signed to the practice squad after final cuts. The Bengals opted to bring him in instead of keeping Desmond Ridder, who had been with the team in camp, as QB3. Ironically, Ridder just signed with the Vikings, who the Bengals will face in week 3.
Rypien will be the backup on game days, but the Bengals still further added to their QB depth by signing Mike White and Sean Clifford to the practice squad.
The team had some open spots, following the departures of Maema Njongmeta and Isaiah Williams.
White was originally a 5th round pick of the Dallas Cowboys in 2018. The next year, he ended up with the New York Jets. His first career start infamously came in week 8 of the 2021 season against the Bengals. White helped to orchestrate one of the league’s biggest upsets of that season, leading the Jets to a win. Since then, he has spent time with the Bills and Dolphins.
Clifford was originally a 5th round pick of the Green Bay Packers in 2023. He only has 1 career pass attempt, which ended up being a 37 yard completion. However, Clifford did appear in a preseason game against the Bengals back in 2023, perhaps making a good enough impression to help land this job.
For now, the Bengals will proceed with Rypien, White, and Clifford behind Jake Browning, but another move shouldn’t be ruled out yet. Earlier, it was reported that the Bengals checked in on the availability of Packers backup QB Malik Willis. As well, there have been rumours about Jameis Winston. The Bengals are clearly looking at a variety of options, and we’ll see if their searches lead to anything else at some point down the line.
