AFC North Notes: Bengals, Browns, Ravens, Steelers

Bengals

• Bengals CB Darqueze Dennard said he took one visit and was supposed to take a few more, but he talked to his fiancee and they made the decision to stay in Cincinnati. (Katherine Terrell)
• Ian Rapoport reports that Dennard receives a one-year contract worth $5 million.

Browns

• Browns GM John Dorsey said they will have joint practices with the Colts in Indianapolis for three days before the teams’ Week 2 preseason game. (Mary Kay Cabot)
• Dorsey said he’s also spoken with WR Odell Beckham and doesn’t sense any hesitancy about coming to Cleveland. (Nate Ulrich)

Ravens

Ravens HC John Harbaugh was as surprised as everyone else to see LB Terrell Suggs leave the team.  

“I was really surprised by Sizz [Suggs],” Harbaugh said via NFL Media’s Herbie Teope. “That was one I was shocked by. I expected him to be there but when I heard his reasoning and what I thought he was thinking, then I said OK.” 

Harbaugh went on to say he thought the team’s new free agent additions were perfect fits for the Ravens culture, though.  

“I think people that watch football know what it means to play like a Raven and be a Raven,” he said. “The interesting thing is that these guys, you ask Earl Thomas, you ask Mark Ingram, you ask Justin Bethel, what do you think you’re here for? They know, because they fit. We don’t draft anybody, we don’t sign anybody, we don’t sign any undrafted free agents unless we think they’re Ravens. That’s pretty well-defined.”

• New GM Eric DeCosta affirmed the Ravens will keep CB Jimmy Smith: “One of the greatest strengths of our team right now is our secondary. I think it would be foolish for us to make a strength a weakness for no reason.” (Jeff Zrebiec)
• DeCosta said the Ravens weren’t impressed with the options in free agency at wide receiver and will probably wait until the draft to address the position.  (Zrebiec)
• Baltimore also hasn’t closed the door on bringing back DE Brent Urban: “Right player, right price. The market is a fluid process, and we’re going to try and build the best def. we can. I certainly think Brent is a good player. I’m surprised that he hasn’t signed with another team.”  (Zrebiec)
• Addressing pass rusher will also be a priority for the Ravens, per DeCosta: “It’s certainly a need. We’ve got some young players that we’re still excited about in Tyus Bowser and Tim Williams, and obviously Matt Judon is a staple on our defense. But our depth is not quite what it was last year.”  (Jamison Hensley)

Steelers

While he didn’t rule out a trade up in the draft for a player, Steelers GM Kevin Colbert added he didn’t always follow the traditional trade value chart.  

“Anytime you’re talking about trading draft picks, I never just use, it’s a three and a six, because that six might be Antonio Brown,” Colbert said, via Bob Labrlola of the team’s website. “You say, just throw in a seventh. Well, that seventh might have been Brett Keisel. So you never just want to say, it’s a pick. You try to associate a player you could get with those picks. And you go back in history and look at what you got with certain picks, but then you also project who you might be turning away from in a given draft.”