AFC North Notes: Bengals, Browns, Steelers

Bengals

• Jim Owczarski of the Enquirer reports that Bengals DE Carlos Dunlap, who is entering a contract year, was not in attendance for the start of OTAs on Tuesday.
• Owczarski notes that skipping voluntary OTAs will cost Dunlap $300,000, so this is certainly a situation to watch this offseason if he’s already willing to lose money.
• League sources have told Owczarski that Dunlap’s absence hasn’t affected his standing with the Bengals front office regarding a potential extension, even though HC Marvin Lewis expected him to be in attendance.

Browns

Second-year DE Myles Garrett said his goal this season is to “be on the field as much as possible.”

“I wanted to get in better shape, so I can be out there and make plays, create turnovers,” Garrett told the Akron Beacon Journal. “The last game of the season, I was going most of the game. I think I took five, maybe 10 plays off. That’s my goal — to be on the field as much as possible, so I can make as big of an impact as possible.”

Steelers

Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger said Tuesday that his prior comments about not helping rookie QB Mason Rudolph were taken out of context and he plans to do what he can to him moving forward.

“I think people took some things I said into a context that I was going to be mean or rude or whatever. That’s not it at all,” Roethlisberger said, via ESPN.com. “If you listen to the whole conversation, it was said in jest and laughing. I’ve never been the type to be rude or mean to other quarterbacks. I’ve had a lot of quarterbacks come through here that are younger than me that I’ve tried to help any way that I can. So I’ll continue to do that.“