Kevin Stefanski not ready to declare Joe Flacco his starter if Dorian Thompson-Robinson fails to clear concussion protocol

LOS ANGELES — This was a supposed to be a big homecoming week for rookie quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson, with the Browns practicing all week UCLA, his alma mater.

With Thompson-Robinson in his familiar stomping grounds, where he started 48 games over five years for the Bruins, it was an opportunity to serve as a quasi-host for his teammates and let a little bit of that UCLA magic rub off on him.

Instead, Thompson-Robinson is in the concussion protocol after taking that huge blast in the shoulder and chin from Baron Browning that knocked him out of Sunday’s 29-12 loss to the Broncos with 11 seconds left in the third quarter, and the Browns trailing 17-12. Thompson-Robinson left the field with a bloodied mouth and woozy head, and his status for Sunday against the Rams is in serious doubt. Judging from the way he looked walking to the locker room after the hit and later exiting it, he could need more than just this week toshake off the cobwebs.

“We’ll work through all that this week,” Stefanski said. “As you can imagine, we have P.J. (Walker), we have Joe (Flacco) if Dorian’s not available.”

He declined to predict the trajectory of Thompson-Robinson’s recovery, which depends on an independent neurologist his brain scans getting back to baseline. He also declined to say if Thompson-Robinson could play if cleared late in the week.

“Hard to say,” he said. “I’m going to let the protocol play out.”

He decline to answer specifically what he’d need to see from Flacco, a 16th-year pro, to feel confident starting him in this new system with new teammates. With Flacco practicing with the Browns for the first time on Wednesday, they deemed him not ready to be activated off the practice squad for the Rams game.

“With all of our players that you get during the season, obviously you work with them in the meeting rooms, out on the practice field, see where they are,” he said. “But we’ll see where it goes, where this week goes, based on, obviously, Dorian’s health.”

He acknowledged that Flacco worked overtime last to get up to speed after being signed to the practice squad on Monday..

“He works very hard at, again, P.J. went through a very similar thing where you get here and it’s a crash course and you spend extra time with the playbook and with the coaches and get up to speed as quickly as you can.”

Stefanski pointed out that he doesn’t typically announce any starters on a Monday, which is in part for competitive reasons. Teams need any slight edge they can get, and making the opponent prepare for multiple quarterbacks is one of the best ways to take up their prep time.

“You just have the week to work through those type of things,” he said. “So that’s what we’ll do as it pertains to who’s available. That’s how the NFL operates. That’s how we operate. It changes week to week. That’s just how it is.”

With Walker prone to turnovers, and a lack of TD passes, Stefanski will likely give strong consideration to starting Flacco against the 5-6 Rams, who beat the Cardinals 37-14 on Sunday. In relief of Thompson-Robinson on Sunday, Walker went 6 of 13 for 56 yards with no TDs and no INTs for a 58.5 rating. He was strip-sacked once with the Broncos recovering and kicking a field goal, and sacked once in the end zone for a safety.

All told, he’s thrown one TD pass against five interceptions and has lost two fumbles en route to a 50.6 rating in his four appearances, two starts, and two coming off the bench. He’s also been sacked 11 times.

The downside to Flacco, the former Super Bowl MVP, is that he’s gone just 3-14 in his last 17 starts, including 1-8 with the Jets over the previous three seasons. His lone victory was the improbable 31-30 stunner over the Browns in Week 2 in which he threw two TD passes in the final 82 seconds.

Flacco, 38, is supremely confident in his ability and is eager to prove he can still play. Tossing the small football to his five kids — four boys — in the yard this season just wasn’t cutting it. But it might be tough for Flacco to come in as have instant chemistry with players such as David Njoku and Amari Cooper, who are struggling to adjust to Thompson-Robinson’s passes. He had 6-8 dropped against the Steelers, and another handful in Denver.

But Stefanski might have no choice but to start his fourth quarterback in this high stakes season, in which the Browns were expected to win a boatload of games and go deep into the playoffs, maybe even the Super Bowl. Now, they’re just trying to determine who can play the cleanest game and not put the now banged-up defense on a short field. With three giveaways in Denver, the Browns have climbed back into the top spot in the NFL with 23 giveaways, and it’s a losing formula. They’ve lost the turnover battle eight out of 11 times this season, and are tied for third-worst turnover differential at minus-7.

“Haven’t had to spend much time with (Flacco) besides meeting rooms and stuff like that,” running back Jerome Ford said. “But of course there’s a comfort at having a guy like Joe Flacco, with everything that he’s accomplished, be in the same meeting room as you and on the same team as you, and we’re just pretty much looking forward to what he can do to help the team and how we can help him and build a relationship.”

With Thompson-Robinson at the helm, the Browns scored 3, 13 and 12 points, respectively, which raises the question of whether or not he should be starting even when healthy.

“Any young player that you put in there, you’re continuing to coach and bring them along,” Stefanski said. “Disappointed that he got hurt in yesterday’s game, disappointed that play occurred, but we’ll just keep bringing our young guys along.”

Two players who haven’t fared well yet with Thompson-Robinson starting are tight end David Njoku, who’s dropped about seven passes in the past two weeks, including one in the end zone in Denver, and Amari Cooper, who’s caught 6 of 14 targets for 50 yards, including 2 of 6 in Denver for 16 yards. The receivers also count as drops passes that him them in the hands, but there’s something about Thompson-Robinson’s ball that they haven’t adjusted to yet.

“It always comes back to technique,” Stefanski said. “I don’t think you can simply say to somebody, ‘Hey, catch the ball.’ I think you have to talk about the things that go into catching the ball, the act of catching, and there’s all those coaching points, there’s all those things that you’ve been taught your whole life, and we’ll continue to coach them up because those are certainly correctable.”

This week, it might be a moot point.