LOS ANGELES — The expected was made official Friday, as Joe Flacco will become Cleveland’s fourth starting quarterback of the season Sunday when the Browns play at the Los Angeles Rams.

Rookie Dorian Thompson-Robinson remains in concussion protocol and will not be active. So, 13 days after joining the Browns, Flacco will be elevated from the practice squad to start for the first time since he started for the New York Jets in last year’s season finale.

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There have been a lot of firsts for Flacco over the last two-plus weeks. When the Browns called after losing Deshaun Watson to season-ending shoulder surgery in Week 10, they set up the first free-agent workout in which Flacco has ever participated. Though he’s played for the Denver Broncos and Jets since leaving the Baltimore Ravens, this is his first time joining a team during the season. It’s his first time on a practice squad, too. After watching from the sideline last week with an earpiece in so that he could hear the play calls, he’ll be lining up under center for the Browns on Sunday.

“It’s definitely exciting, the idea of it,” Flacco said. “There are a lot of things about being at this point in my life that make it really exciting, even besides just playing the game of football. There are so many things that add to it now, having young kids and feeling their excitement about it. And when you are away, it puts things in perspective a little bit. And like I said, you just try to let these opportunities take care of themselves and do your best to be ready for them.”

In the wake of Watson’s Week 10 injury, Thompson-Robinson found out he was being named the starter on his 24th birthday. Flacco turns 39 in January, and Sunday will mark the start of his 16th NFL season. His 11 seasons in Baltimore included six playoff appearances as the starter and being named MVP of Super Bowl XLVII.

The Browns are 7-4 and, though they’re still alive in the AFC North race, they realistically need three more wins to ensure themselves a wild-card playoff berth. They have a defense that’s good enough to drag them to the postseason, and they’re hopeful that Flacco still has enough arm to ignite an offense that’s been wildly inconsistent all season and hasn’t surpassed 13 points in a game since losing Watson.

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Flacco had been hoping for another NFL opportunity — and frankly was a little bit peeved that he had to wait as long as he did. But now that it’s here, he’s taken a humble yet anxious approach.

“If you’ve ever heard a retired (player) come back and talk about what they miss, it’s being on trips like this with the guys, like going and getting breakfast, lunch, sitting at the table and just shooting the breeze and all that stuff,” Flacco said. “Out here (at practice) I talked about having a little bit of nerves, wanting to make good impressions. And you come out here and you’ve done a million Wednesday practices, but you want to have a good one. And then to go out there and feel like you did have a good one, is the excitement, what you feel inside — just over a practice. I don’t know.

“There’s not too many things that are better in the world than just playing good sound football and feeling good about it. That’s what winning is all about. It’s about doing it with your teammates and enjoying that experience. You miss that.”

Crash course

After playing in Denver on Sunday, the Browns arrived in Los Angeles late that night, and with Thompson-Robinson in concussion protocol, started building a game plan Monday with Flacco in mind.

Flacco worked on the Browns’ scout team last week. His first time in the huddle with the No. 1 offense came in Wednesday’s practice, and Monday started an accelerated process of Flacco getting comfortable with that game plan while continuing to learn the Browns’ playbook.

“I think any time that you’ve done something for so long, then yeah, it’s like riding a bike,” Flacco said. “You get in the huddle and you call a play. I will say the first walk-through I did (Wednesday), it took five plays to kind of get back in the rhythm of doing things and there’s different words, so you’ve got to get used to hearing them and then actually saying ’em, not just picturing ’em on a screen.

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“So it’s so valuable to be able to get some reps like that … because like I said, that’s easy stuff but you do take it for granted. But yeah, I definitely have the years of experience to help me out a little bit.”

After seeing Flacco throw in practice the last two weeks, Browns offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt said he believes Flacco still has “elite” arm strength and enough poise to understand what he knows about this offense, what he doesn’t and when to just throw the ball away.

“I think there’s still a lot left in his tank,” Van Pelt said. “Again, (seeing) practice (this week) would solidify that for me. Just watching him — the accuracy and the velocity, the footwork and everything that he showed.”

The carousel continues

The last team to win at least one game with four different starting quarterbacks in a season was the 2015 Houston Texans, who went 9-7 and made the playoffs.

Given the quarterback history of the new-era Cleveland Browns, of course there’s a Cleveland connection to that team. Two of the four were former Browns: Cleveland native Brian Hoyer, who won five of the nine, and Brandon Weeden, who won one. Five true quarterbacks played for the Texans that season and seven players threw passes. Cleveland native Cecil Shorts, a wide receiver, threw a touchdown pass on a trick play.

Prior to the 2015 Texans, the 2007 Panthers had been the last team to win a game with four different starters. One was Vinny Testaverde, who played for the pre-move Browns and was in his 21st and final season. Another was Jake Delhomme, who started five games for the Browns in 2010.

Flacco becomes the Browns’ eighth starting quarterback since Kevin Stefanski became head coach in 2020. Flacco has nine previous wins in Cleveland Browns Stadium: eight during his 11 seasons with the Ravens, and last year’s improbable Week 2 rally with the Jets.

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This is the 10th time in the new era that the Browns have had to use at least three starters in a season. The 2008 Browns had to use four different starting quarterbacks, while the 2016 team had five different quarterbacks play but just three starters. College quarterback turned NFL wide receiver Terrelle Pryor also threw nine passes for that 2016 team.

(Photo: Ron Chenoy / USA Today)