Many expected Jake Browning to keep the Cincinnati Bengals on track superstar quarterback Joe Burrow's stead, considering he's done it before. However, to put it mildly, that's been far from the case thus far.
Browning's shortcomings are among the top reasons why the Bengals dropped their third consecutive game in a dispiriting 37-24 Week 5 loss to the Detroit Lions.
A quarter-plus of garbage time made his box score numbers look much better than it really was. Nevertheless, things have reached a point where the NFL's Nov. 4 trade deadline should represent a hard cutoff date for Cincinnati to replace him.