AFC North Notes: Bengals, Browns, Steelers

Bengals

• According to the Athletic’s Mo Eggers, Bengals RB Joe Mixon can put himself in position to receive a contract similar to Cowboys RB Ezekiel Elliott with another strong season. 
• Eggers adds that Mixon doesn’t have the same career workload Elliott does, making him potentially a better investment. 
• Bengals WR A.J. Green says he’s shed the walking boot and “turned a corner” in his rehab from an ankle injury. (Geoff Hobson)
• Green added he’s running now on a zero-gravity treadmill. (Hobson)
• Green still doesn’t want to put a timetable on his return to the field as he focuses on staying healthy: “Just making sure I don’t come back too soon and hurt it again.” (Hobson)

Browns

• Per ESPN’s Jake Trotter, Browns HC Freddie Kitchens says the team doesn’t know how long they’ll be without injured OT Kendall Lamm: “Going to be out for a little bit, but I do not know how long. It may be a couple of days or it may be a couple of weeks. I am not sure. Hopefully, it is a couple of days.”
• Trotter previously reported the Browns were signing OL Dino Boyd, however, he later added Cleveland was exploring other options. 

Steelers

The Steelers offense struggled dramatically in Sunday night’s 30-3 loss to the Patriots. It was Pittsburgh’s first game without both WR Antonio Brown and RB Le’Veon Bell in some time, but QB Ben Roethlisberger says the team is closer than it appears to finding success on that side of the ball. 

“It’s not like all of a sudden we have to go back to the drawing board,” Roethlisberger said via ESPN’s Brooke Pryor. “Doing this, just scratching everything, crossing everything out. . . . It’s just, we all need to, starting with myself, play better. It’s nothing drastic on anybody’s plate. It’s just little things here and little things there.”

• According to Art Stapleton, former Steelers LB Tuzar Skipper says the team told him they had to waive him to sign a gunner for Sunday’s game and they planned to sign him back to the active roster before he was claimed by the Giants. 
• Steelers WR Donte Moncrief says he’s still playing through pain due to a dislocated finger suffered earlier in camp: “(Roethlisberger) is depending on me and I’ve got to make plays for him, hurt finger or not.” (Jeremy Fowler)