Now we have Jersey Joe joining Seamless Joe after the Bengals electrified Paycor Stadium with the trade for a big-armed AFC quarterback they know well in Joe Flacco.

Bengals left tackle Orlando Brown Jr., leaped for his phone Tuesday when he saw the news. Flacco was the quarterback during Brown's first three starts as a rookie for the Ravens in 2018, Flacco's last season in Baltimore.

Brown sent him a welcome text as the football world buzzed with the Bengals' move for the 40-year-old hired gunslinger a day after head coach Zac Taylor said he was re-evaluating Jake Browning's starting role in the absence of Joe Burrow.

Brown had yet to hear from him Tuesday evening, but that's because as he made the trip to Cincinnati, Flacco was already FaceTiming Xs and Os with his new coaches.

"Our front office makes a move that, to me, gives us a chance," said Brown of a wide-open AFC North race. "Nothing against Jake. He's won games for us. I just think Flacco being a seasoned vet and doing some of the things he does, that's pretty exciting."

T.J. Houshmandzadeh, one of five Bengals to catch 500 balls, played with Flacco for a season with the Ravens in 2010 and found himself catching a winning touchdown pass from him in Pittsburgh. After he caught the 18-yarder with 32 seconds left, Houshmandzadeh remembers Flacco invoking the name of the Ravens offensive coordinator.

"He told me, 'Great route. Can you believe Cam Cameron told me to throw it to Derrick Mason?'" Houshmandzadeh recalled. "Whether it was true or not, what he was saying is that he believed in me. He was going to throw it to me with the game on the line.

"That's the kind of leader he is," Houshmandzadeh said. "A lead-by example guy. Not a rah-rah guy. A really good dude. Flacco is my guy. When you see him, remind him how I screwed him up in cornhole."

Brown still sees that arm screwing up foes. Just last month in the opener in Cleveland, the Browns dropped four Flacco passes in a 17-16 Bengals' win that could have turned on any of them.

"He's definitely an elite processor. There isn't anything he hasn't seen, he's played for so long," Brown said. "He's seen it all. I think Zac and Pitch (offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher) are great quarterback minds. They'll get him into this offense and we're not running anything he's unfamiliar with."

Houshmandzadeh says the move tells him a few things. That Burrow is serious about returning from toe injury. And Bengals management believes what he does. With the Ravens at 1-4 and Flacco successor Lamar Jackson struggling while the 3-1 Steelers feel their way around the Aaron Rodgers Era, the division is gettable.

"He's never had the skill players he has there," Houshmandzadeh said.

The Cincinnati party game from now until maybe Sunday's kickoff in Green Bay (4:25 p.m.-Cincinnati’s Local 12) is trying to guess if Flacco starts. Brown remembers what his old college chum Baker Mayfield did for the Rams a few years back.

"My man Baker showed up on a Tuesday, played Thursday, and had a game-winning drive," Brown said.

The Bengals made it clear they were looking for options after Taylor met the media Monday. They no doubt scoured the league before making the move less than 24 hours later, balancing such factors as compensation, experience, and game action.

Flacco, the New Jersey native who spent his first 11 seasons in Baltimore, checked so many of the boxes. He not only has a big arm, but the Bengals seemed to sense this was a rare opportunity to get a guy in midseason who had already played enough to have a feel for the speed of the game to go along with the experience. This was no vet backup who had been sitting for six weeks, or a kid off a practice squad.

Houshmandzadeh says Bengals wide receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins "have to have smiles on their faces."

"If they protect him. Flacco can slice and dice you," Houshmandzadeh said. "His arm fits what the Bengals want to do. It's a big arm. He can throw it anywhere on the field. Comebacks from the hash. Deep posts. Any route. We saw it this year. If he can stay away from the turnovers, the Bengals have a chance."

Flacco becomes the first 40-year-old player in Bengals history, older than Pitcher, quarterbacks coach Brad Kragthorpe and assistant quarterbacks coach Fredi Knighten. Flacco (Delaware) and assistant Bengals general manager Mike Potts (William and Mary) were opposing quarterbacks. Brown finds it comforting.

"It's really interesting. I was 21 when I came into this league fighting and scratching to get an opportunity, and I'm such a different person now," Brown said. "I'm a captain. I'm 29. I'm a seasoned vet. I think it's really cool to suit up with a guy like Flacco at this point in my career and his career."

Brown says Flacco helped the rookie Brown immensely. He felt he could ask him any question and did even though Flacco was the face of the franchise post-Ray Lewis as a Super Bowl MVP.

"Great teammate," Brown said. "He's got one of the loudest voices I've ever heard."

What sticks in Brown's mind from seven years ago and that first NFL season is the Saturdays before home games. The Ravens were allowed to bring their kids to the walkthrough and have breakfast. Flacco has five children and Brown remembers Flacco "filling up one of those whole breakfast tables and sitting down and having waffles with his kids. As a young player, I thought that was pretty cool."

A sudden seven years later, Brown is watching Flacco at the table again.

"Something like this," Brown said of his team, "can give you some juice."