AFC Notes: Bengals, Bills, Browns

Bengals 

Bengals WR John Ross said he was “hurt” by the criticism he received during his rookie year after dealing with shoulder and knee injuries.

“It hurt me a lot, because I feel like sometimes people don’t understand what a player’s going through,” Ross said, via SiriusXM NFL Radio. “Not just me, but everyone who goes through something that they can’t control. No one wants to be hurt and no one plans on being hurt, so you’ve got to look at the guys who work hard every day and then they go out and there’s freak accidents, there’s things that happen all the time.”

Bills

Former Bills first-round DE Shaq Lawson, who has come up as a potential roster cut, admitted that being on the trading block the past year or so has been a “wake-up call.”

“Shoot, I’ve been on the trading block I feel like,” Lawson said, via Matthew Fairburn of The Athletic. “I’ve just been seeing it. Yeah, it’s been a wake-up call. I’ve been hearing trade rumors and then I kind of realized, ‘I’m a first-round pick, third-year now. It’s time to wake up.’ I know I’m a good player. I just have to put it all together and be not just a talented player but a talented player who works hard and works on his craft and skill altogether.”

Lawson added that he’s approaching “every day like my job is on the line.”

• Mike Rodak believes former first-round DE Shaq Lawson is “competing for a rotational role, if not for his 53-man roster spot entirely” this summer.

Browns

Browns TEs coach Greg Seamon said last week that they think second-year TE David Njoku has a “long and very, very bright future” in the NFL and they expect to see improvement in 2018.

“We have to keep in mind that this guy has a long and very, very bright future,” Seamon said, via Cleveland.com. “We expect continued improvement. That can never be an excuse, but it is what he came to us with very little experience. He was raw.”

Seamon explained that the volume of plays they run in the NFL on top of a new language can lead to rookies, particularly at tight end, taking some time to get comfortable.

“The volume of plays and the volume of language in the NFL that they have to take command of is daunting for a lot of these guys,” Seamon said. “So, for the tight ends, because they’re involved in every area and because we use them as tight ends, we use them as slot receivers, we will occasionally use them as a single receiver and then also in the backfield, they have to understand the whole NFL offense and it’s a big task.”