AFC Notes: Andrew Berry, Lamar Jackson, Duke Tobin, Bengals, Browns, Ravens

Bengals

Bengals’ director of player personnel Duke Tobin said he was “obviously disappointed” by how last season played out and how they struggled against division opponents.  

“Well, obviously disappointed. We fully expect to be there at the end and give ourselves a chance. We had some good moments and then we didn’t get enough done within the division. When you don’t do that, it makes it very difficult to make the playoffs,” Tobin said, via Kelsey Conway of the Cincinnati Enquirer. 

Regarding Cininnati’s slow start, Tobin thinks QB Joe Burrow‘s injury and playing good teams in the early portion of the season were big factors.  

“Joe was not himself, we were completely a different team because we were trying to make it work without any mobility really, to his credit, he battled through it. It was a few games before he started feeling like himself. We’re not designing slow starts by any means, we’re trying to get out quick. I think we faced some pretty good teams in the early part of the year.”

Browns

Speaking at the Senior Bowl, Browns GM Andrew Berry addressed the idea of continuity with Cleveland, which brings back both him and HC Kevin Stefanski for a fifth straight year. However, the Browns decided to fire OC Alex Van Pelt in a clear, intentional decision to shake some things up. 

“I think continuity is a good thing,” Berry said via The Athletic’s Zac Jackson. “But I also think that usually when people talk about continuity, they assume that means no changes. I don’t know any successful organization across any industry that doesn’t make left and right turns, so to speak, on their path to success. So I love my working relationship with Kevin. He’s more than a partner. He’s like a true friend, and that also makes it easier. But yeah, I think stability is a good thing and so is continuity in the sense of values or like our fundamental approach, but it’s also OK to make changes. …

“I know I’ve mentioned this before, but when you’re a general manager, you have a foot in the present and a foot in the future, and which way you lean depends on the readiness of your team to compete. So we feel good about our roster and probably at least last offseason leaned a little bit more toward the present. And that will probably be the case this year as well. But that doesn’t mean that we just punt the future.”

Ravens

Ravens QB Lamar Jackson is now 2-4 in the postseason after the team’s loss to the Chiefs. After the game, he told reporters he was more angry than frustrated about the way things went against Kansas City.

“I’m not frustrated at all,” Jackson said, via Jamison Hensley of ESPN. “I’m angry about losing. We are a game away from the Super Bowl. We’ve been waiting all this time, all these moments for an opportunity like this and we fell short. But I feel like our team, we going to build this offseason, going to get right, get better grind and try to be in this position again — but on the other side of victory.”

“We’re mad,” Jackson added. “Offense, we didn’t put nothing on the board. We scored once. That’s not like us. We drove the ball down the field. That’s cool. But we got to put points on the board. But I feel like my team is just angry, not frustrated, we just angry. We know how hard we worked to get here.”

Veteran WR Odell Beckham, LB Patrick Queen, and HC John Harbaugh were all asked about Jackson after the game.

“There’s certain moments that define you, and this is just one that’ll be in his career,” Beckham said. “The greats have all been through tough times and I don’t think this is going to stop him from wanting to get to his ultimate goal. If anything, he’s going to work even harder…He wants it bad. I had never seen somebody so locked in and just in the flow and in that era, I just felt like it was his time. And like I say, sometimes things happen in life and it doesn’t go the way that we planned and it’s just about what do you do from here.”

“I told him to stand up tall,” Harbaugh said when asked what he told Jackson after the loss. “He’s had a great season, his performance today was all heart. He fought, he went out there and gave everything he had. So I don’t think that’s anything that I’d be disappointed in.”

“Honestly, what hurts me the most is that I wanted to get him the recognition that he deserves,” Queen said of Jackson. “It’s a team sport, but honestly, that guy was the main guy I was playing for. This was his opportunity to be able to write some of that stuff off and move on to the next thing. That’s why it hurts because you want to see people like that, teammates that you love and care about, get what they’re supposed to get, and that didn’t happen today.”