AFC North Notes: Bengals, Browns, Ravens

Bengals

Bengals former first-round WR John Ross is healthy and able to participate in offseason workouts, which is actually good news, considering that he didn’t take part in his first practice as a rookie until August 11 last year.

“It’s been awhile,” Bengals HC Marvin Lewis said of Ross, via the Jim Owczarski of the Cincinnati Enquirer. “He’s had so few snaps around 11 guys on the other side of the ball, so this was great work for him and great experience for him that he was not able to get a year ago. He’s had so few of these days, you know? This is a good chance for him over the next nine days to get another opportunity to play 11-on-11 football that he hasn’t had a whole lot of opportunity to do.”

As for TE Tyler Eifert, he says he’s on schedule in his return from back surgery and plans to be full speed for the start of training camp.

“I feel good. I’m on schedule,” Eifert said. “This has been part of the plan to stay monitored as we progress through here. I don’t want to go out there and have any setbacks or anything, so just methodically moving forward. The plan is to go into camp full speed but there’s nothing keeping me back from doing that right now. It’s part of the plan, or progression.”

Browns

Browns S Jabrill Peppers says he expects to play faster now that he’s in his second year in the team’s defensive system.

“It allows you to play faster,” Peppers said, via Ohio.com. “You know what other guys are supposed to do as well. It allows you to help other guys play to your level, disguise certain things and make it look like a different scheme, things like that. It definitely helps having a year under my belt going through the offseason process with the guys, the whole offseason process, just relearning certain things, learning new techniques and how to play different schemes. It’s definitely going to be a tremendous help. I’m just looking forward to go out there, learn from my mistakes, playing that much faster, being in better shape now that I’ve got a year of conditioning with the guys under my belt, just going out there doing what I love to do and what I know how to do best.”

Ravens

• Jeff Zrebiec of the Baltimore Sun writes that first-round QB Lamar Jackson was a “mixed bag” during this week’s OTAs practice open to the media.
• According to Zrebiec, Jackson looked good as a runner and even threw a back-shoulder touchdown to rookie fourth-round WR Jaleel Scott. However, he also threw an interception that was returned for a touchdown after he didn’t see the safety standing in front of his intended target.
• Zrebiec says it’s easy to see why Joe Flacco is so excited about WR Michael Crabtree, who is a very smooth receiver that shows a lot of attention to detail.
• Zrebiec believes the Ravens should consider signing a veteran inside linebacker, given that C.J. Mosely, Albert McClellan and Bam Bradley are all sidelined right now and they have limited depth at the position.
• Former second-round OLB Kamalei Correa could be entering a make-or-break year with the Ravens, according to Zrebiec.
• As for WR Breshad Perriman, Zrebiec says he’s looked healthy, in good shape and engaged and even made a couple of plays this past week.