Bengals Pro Bowl quarterback Joe Burrow returning to the field and backup Joe Flacco returning to the city he helped bring an NFL championship as a Super Bowl MVP are providing plenty to chew on this Thanksgiving (8:20 p.m.-Cincinnati’s Channel 5) in Baltimore.

The same day Burrow injured his toe, Sept. 14, Flacco made his return to M&T Bank Stadium as the starting quarterback for Cleveland, a team he torched for 27 touchdowns and a 17-3 record in his 11 seasons in Balt. To say a lot of water has gone under the bridge in 74 days is like saying the Ravens are Thursday night tough at home under head coach John Harbaugh.

(Try 9-0).

We already know the classy, candid Flacco has no problems vacating his seat in prime time in the city where his career, like the national anthem, was written.

"Listen, that was a long time ago. I think you always have a feeling about being somewhere after you were somewhere," Flacco says. "But I think it's pretty easy at this point to take emotion out of it."

It's the first time he'll watch Burrow after they've had a month of conversations together about playing the same position in the same division. No. 9 and No. 16 add up to four AFC North titles and two AFC championships.

"I think whenever you have a guy that's played that long, especially a guy that plays so much differently than you do, you can ask him what he thought in a situation or how would you react to this or that," Burrow says. "He's played a long time and played at a high level. That's something I did take advantage of."

Burrow is a generational out-of-the-pocket-dare-the-hits playmaker-point-guard. Flacco may be a classic-back-drop thrower-of-an-another time, but he's also never been shy to take shots while taking shots.

"You have to be yourself. We've had those conversations," Flacco says. "Trying to find times to pick your battles. Being aware of what you do and don't have and things like that."

If you want to know why a guy like Burrow wants to play at 3-8, you only have to look as far as Flacco. He's 40 years old, has five kids and a Super Bowl MVP at home, and he's taking hits and keeps going out there with body parts in various forms of repair while getting help from trainers he may not even know and playing with guys he just met.

Head coach Zac Taylor couldn't suppress his amazement after Sunday's game.

"You can't put it into words. He didn't owe anything to this team. He just showed up," Taylor said of the Oct. 7 trade. "He could take the easy way out and nurse an injury and say 'I need more rest,' and all that stuff. He hasn't. He just keeps walking on the field. Pops his finger out, and whatever happened there, hurting your throwing hand is not easy."

Whatever the reason, it's the same kind of DNA that puts Burrow out there Thursday. And wouldn't you like to be the fly on that training room wall when they talk?

"We've had conversations about style of play," Flacco says. "And his kind of default vs. my kind of default. Things like that. It's a good conversation between quarterbacks. It's always fun to talk football. Shoot the breeze with the guys."

Burrow likes to extend. Flacco, a better athlete than you think, could never do what Burrow does. More check-downs than off-script. Could Burrow adopt some of Flacco's style? Not when you've got guys like Flacco and Burrow who play by the creed, "Be yourself."

But you know Burrow is taking notes, too.

"We'll see. I'm feeling good enough to go out there and move and extend. Obviously, I'll pick my spots when to do that and when not to, but I feel confident that in certain moments I'll be able to do that," says Burrow when asked if he'll change his style.

"You think about a lot of different things when, number one, you have time to think about them. You watch a lot of games around the league. You see who's playing well, who's not, what's working schematically, what isn't. You evaluate everything."

This is going to be the same Burrow. That's what offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher expects.

"I expect Joe to pretty quickly be playing the type of football that we love watching him play," Pitcher says.

But Pitcher also knows Burrow has been watching Flacco because anybody who cares about what they do would pick the brain of somebody who has been doing the same job three times longer. And Pitcher knows he's had 74 days to think and Burrow is a thinker

"Maybe there's something I can adjust here. Maybe, maybe there's an element of my play that that can be tweaked," Pitcher says. "I think he is open to that. I think it'd be foolish for any of us to say that, no, is no adjusting and deal with it.

"He's obviously done a lot of incredible things in this league, and he's an incredible player, and I expect him to continue to be an incredible player in this league, and how his career evolves, and how he evolves as a player, we'll see. I'm excited to see it, because he's a lot of fun to watch."

Even though he won't play, Flacco is more than an interested bystander. He was in the middle of Bengals-Ravens classics a decade before Burrow and Lamar Jackson authored that Madden 24 special last year that came down to Baltimore stopping Burrow's two-point attempt to Tanner Hudson in a 35-34 Rembrandt.

At M&T, it was Flacco who, in 2013, engineered a Ravens overtime field goal drive that negated the tying Andy Dalton-A.J. Green Hail Mary at the gun.

"A.J. Green," said Flacco, under his breath, perhaps recalling Green stole the opener the next year when Dalton unfurled a 77-yard bomb to him to erase a deficit as the clock ticked under five minutes.

"I remember those," Flacco says.

Oh yeah, he remembers the last day of 2017. The Ravens win and they're in the playoffs. They were. With less than a minute left and the Bengals looking at fourth-and-12.

"Game over? No. Touchdown," Flacco winces.

Flacco knows why Burrow came back no matter the record. Nights like this. Places like this.

"It's just a fun place to play. Great fans. They do a good job at that stadium. It's kind of easy to get up and be into," Flacco says. "It will be cool. I think it's going to be a cool environment People probably have enjoyed their Thanksgiving, and it'll be a little extra rowdy. Should be a good time."

That's why they play.

Like the old pro said.

"You have to be yourself."