Ryan Fitzpatrick, the greatest quarterback Harvard ever had, never took a crash course like Joe Flacco.

He registered until he was 39, signing up for nine teams in 166 games across three different decades, and even now teaches graduate studies for the Prime Video crew beaming Thursday night's Bengals-Steelers field trip from Paycor Stadium.

Yet the former Bengals quarterback never had to do what the current Bengals quarterback did last Sunday in Green Bay, which is arrive on Tuesday night to a new playbook with a game plan still wet with paint, and generate 18 points and 219 passing yards with just one false start penalty.

"People just don't understand how difficult that is," Fitzpatrick is saying as he's dropping the kids off at soccer practice.

The closest he came? After Doug Johnson imploded backing up Carson Palmer in the 2007 preseason finale, the Bengals struck an overnight Sept. 1, trade with St. Louis for a stunned Fitzpatrick. He had nine days to prepare for the Monday night opener he wouldn't start against the Ravens.

Except. Halfway through the first quarter …

"Shayne Graham got hurt and the punter had to kick," Fitzpatrick says, still recalling the ire of special teams coordinator Darrin Simmons. "He asked me if I had ever held. The punter was the holder. I said, 'No.' So we practiced on the sideline and went out there for an extra point. The hold was probably terrible. It got blocked. Thank God we won the game."

Thank God Graham came back. Fitzpatrick holds plenty of admiration for Flacco.

"Big time," Fitzpatrick says. "Completely new language, new system. But he's still going to be able to relay the plays to the guys and process it on the way up to the line of scrimmage, and it's not seven on seven. He's got one of the best defenses and one of the best defensive lines that was coming at him trying to rip his face off while he was trying to do all this stuff. The thing we know about Joe Flacco is he's unflappable. Even with the struggles they had in the first half and the 10-nothing deficit that they had. He came out and played really well in the second half."

Something else only a hired gun like Fitzpatrick can admire about Flacco. This is his fifth team in six years. ("He's even got me beat there.")

"Especially for a guy like Joe, who's won a Super Bowl, he's played at a really high level, and his 11 years in Baltimore he was very highly regarded as a quarterback in the league," Fitzpatrick says.

"It just shows you he's really got to love being around and playing the game. He's really got to love it. Because in some of those situations he wasn't the starter, he was the backup. And I think some of his quotes were really telling when he got traded. He worked really hard, he earned the right to be able to be in this position to play in a game in the NFL, and he still enjoys it. He still wants to do it."

As he gets set to call the third game in NFL history pitting two 40-year-old quarterbacks, Fitzpatrick, a month shy of 43 and not yet four full years out of the game, has that same kind of admiration for the other old guy in this game.

The Steelers' Aaron Rodgers, 41, somehow never played against Fitzpatrick. Flacco, 40, went 2-2 against him, including a win at Paycor. Flacco also beat him in overtime despite the Bills' Fitzmagic throwing for 382 yards.

"The thing about Flacco that's crazy is he's got a bunch of kids (five) now. Part of it is really cool," says Fitzpatrick, who has seven himself and felt the growing tug of family as his career went. "But it also makes it difficult when you're not living in the same city and you're not getting to spend the time with them.

"When the trade first happened, I thought, 'Oh no. Poor Joe.' Nobody wants to move in the middle of the season when you already have some sort of routine set where you can at least see your kids a little bit. And he seems to have really embraced it and is really looking forward to it."

Flacco knows there's going to be a day he's dropping the kids off at soccer practice. It's just that he knows football still has a hold on him.

"I think I've had to be willing to kind of deal with some circumstances that I'm not necessarily happy with, with the idea that I'm going to come out on the other end," Flacco said this week. "I think for me, playing as long as I have now, that's been the hardest part, is just being in some situations that they're not ideal, they're not exactly what I want. But hey, it's where I am."

What Fitzpatrick loves about where Flacco is at is his instant bond with Bengals All-Pro wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase. In the course of doing his homework this week, Fitzpatrick is taken with Flacco's approach.

"I don't think (Chase is) out there freestyling. At least not with me right now," Flacco said this week. "Listen, ultimately, if he came to me and said, 'Hey, I know the play is this, but I'm going to do this, I'd say, 'OK, if that's what you're going to do. OK. Sounds good to me.'

"I would lean on him to feel it out. I don't necessarily see that happening. Hypothetically, if he was to come to me and do that, I would just say, 'Yes sir. Will do.'"

Fitzpatrick, throwing to Isaac Bruce in his first game and Terry McLaurin in his last, gets it.

"I love the exchange with him and Ja'Marr Chase. Which receivers are always going to do that," Fitzpatrick says. "Hey, he's sitting on the route. Let's run something different.'

'Yes sir.'

"The beauty of that is Joe is smart enough to know that Ja'Marr is telling him that, whether it's truthful or not, if you throw Ja'Marr the ball, he's going to do everything in his power to catch it. Joe has certainly seen and learned over the years that when you show guys that you listen to them and believe in them, then usually you get rewarded with great plays, which is what he did with Ja'Marr during the game … The chemistry that Flacco showed with Ja'Marr … just shows you how easy of a receiver Ja'Marr is to throw to in terms of quarterback-friendly."

Never mind all that experience. Fitzpatrick says Flacco's arm looks as elite as ever.

"Oh, baby. He can still throw it all over the yard. It's unbelievable," Fitzpatrick says. "He threw the ball outside the numbers really well, which he's always done. And the key for him is he's got to be able to throw it in rhythm."

They may have been born in the '80s, but Fitzpatrick sees an arms race on Thursday.

"Both of these guys can definitely still sling it," Fitzpatrick says. "Their arm talent is up there with anybody in the last 20 years."

But, he says, this isn't the Rodgers who won back-to-back NFL passing titles as recently as the beginning of this decade.

"There's a particular brand of football they're playing right now," Fitzpatrick says. "Which for Aaron is, let's don't turn it over. Let's be really good in the run game and efficient in the pass game. Hit a few big plays to DK (Metcalf) each week, and we're going to be good to go.

"Aaron is very satisfied with the role that he's playing right now. They're not winning all these games because of Aaron Rodgers, but he's certainly not going to lose any games for them the way that he's playing. He's playing a very smart, veteran, savvy brand of football right now. They're sitting at 4-1 because he's been able to do that and be really effective, and because their defense is playing great."

And if you thought Flacco was ripping his release fast (21 of 25 in Green Bay on balls let go under 2.5 seconds), Fitzpatrick says wait until you see Rodgers get rid of it.

"Being able to run around and make those scramble throws and the deep throws down the field, that's something that he doesn't really do much of anymore," Fitzpatrick says. "Certainly, he doesn't want to get hit, and who wants to get hit back there? But the ball comes out faster than it's ever come out in his career."

Fitzpatrick, by the way, loves what he's doing. Except for maybe those predictions during the pregame show.

"I'm 1-4 this year," Fitzpatrick says. "Did you think the Giants were going to beat the Eagles the other night? Did you think the short-handed 49ers were going to beat the Rams in LA? I mean, what are we doing?"

So don't bother to ask him which 40-year-old wins.

"Don't ask me," he says.

And he wouldn't say it if you did.

"I'm not going to tell you everything," says Fitzpatrick, admiring from the other side of 40 and the game. "Watch the show."