Geoff Hobson

His return to Paycor Stadium Wednesday morning to sign on for one more year certainly wasn't as hectic as that first one back in October, forever known in Bengals lore as "The Dinnertime Ride of Joe Flacco."

That four-hour trip from Paul Brown's first team to his last one.

But it was just as impressive with the Bengals locking up behind Joe Burrow Flacco's 18 NFL seasons of institutional knowledge and more than 50,000 passing yards, and had Bengals offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher reminiscing about those first crazed hours after the Oct. 7 trade with the Browns.

If Pitcher calls prep for a Thursday night game "a 48-hour blur," then that was a 12-hour fog.

While Bengals head coach Zac Taylor got on speaker phone with Flacco during the ride to install the basics of the offense, Pitcher and his staff pulled all of Flacco's passes in his four games with the Browns and crafted cutups as they built Sunday's game plan around what he did best most recently.

"He got here at 8 o'clock Tuesday night and walked out to the Wednesday walkthrough at 11 a.m.," Pitcher recalls.

A Wednesday walkthrough preparing for the Green Bay Packers in Lambeau Field on Sunday is a full plate even for Burrow's elite hard-drive processing. But here was Flacco in a new country (Burrowshire) with a language all its own. Pitcher counts three times Flacco asked Taylor to repeat the call.

Three.

"And our Wednesday walkthrough consists of about 35 normal down plays," Pitcher says. "It was just really cool. A pretty remarkable thing that nobody even kind of realizes how remarkable it is. You're walking off the field, and you're like, 'Well, that was surprising.' You're anticipating going out there and stopping every other play and explaining something. It took us the same amount of time as it normally does.

"There are just people that get to a certain level of what they do. They achieve mastery, right? When the little parts of the job that aren't so little to people who are (older) in their professional lives, it just becomes second nature."

And it was that even-keel professionalism (Pitcher: "He's so calm, cool, collected. Yeah. I got it") on display Wednesday when he breezily ripped the rest of the NFL for not signing him as a No. 1 after the annual musical chairs of ready-to-start quarterbacks stopped.

"Not being one of those guys to go sign somewhere, yeah, it pisses me off a little bit," Flacco said at his news conference. "I feel like I can help a team win. It may be in a different role here. But I do still think I can help this team win in that role.

"I had a lot of fun with Joe, and Joe's the guy, and believe me, I wish I was a guy somewhere, and I think teams are dumb for not having me be that guy. But it is what it is. I'm not going to let them get me down.

I'm going to be the person I am and just approach football the way I always have."

And that means like that first frenzied but focused Paycor visit. Wednesday's transcript is a trip through Flacco's mind of a pro during his decision to back up an established veteran quarterback for the first time in his career.

On if his 19th season is his last:

"I guess part of the reason that I'm happy to be here is I'm not necessarily looking at this as the end. I have no idea. Maybe it is, but I'm not looking at it that way. So I think that makes (the decision) a little bit easier, too. To just be somewhere where I really feel comfortable and try to help out in any way I can."

On the Bengals' locker room being a factor in his return:

"A close-knit group of guys. Anytime you're in a locker room like that, it can hit you in a certain way. That's kind of how this past year was for me. I was probably in the headspace to be able to kind of accept that a little bit just because of how crazy last year was for me. You kind of just start to open yourself up to certain things, and I think it just happened to be great timing and a great group of guys to kind of resonate with me and make me feel good about the situation."

On how the decision pretty much came down to wife Dana and head coach Zac Taylor:

"My wife and I have been together for a long time (they have five children), and you can kind of read the room a little bit You just look at each other and you talk about what's going through your mind and you kind of see what her reactions are and she tries to read what my reactions are and I'm trying to see how I'm reacting to things as I'm saying them. Am I truly believing what I'm saying or am I just kind of half in it?

But I think it goes back to talking to Zac. She knew that I talked to Zac and, man, it really sounds like they want you to come back. It's not maybe exactly what you want, but that is a pretty good thing. I think that is a big part of it.

On his kids riding the free-agency rollercoaster:

I feel like this is the first offseason they've kind of rode it with me. Oh, you should go here. No, you should go there. No, you shouldn't do this. Oh yeah, you should do that. What are you asking for, or what are they going to give you? They were fun little conversations. You're asking for too much, actually My 12-year-old said he was sneaking out every now and then (at school) and checking his phone in the bathroom. 'You didn't sign anywhere. You told me you're going sign somewhere by the end of the week.'"

On being at last month's Pro Bowl in San Francisco with Burrow:

"We were getting ready to go get some dinner somewhere. The night gets away from me, and it's like, 'Dude, I'm like 41 years old. It's 9:30. I've got to go to bed. It's 9:30 on the West Coast, it's like 12:30 at home We were there for like two days, And I feel like we've all seen Joe in the media the last couple of days. He's out doing his thing and having fun like a non-41-year- old. So I'm sure I'll talk to him soon enough."