AFC Notes: Bengals, Browns, Ravens

Bengals

Bengals WR Tyler Boyd praised rookie QB Joe Burrow‘s understanding of the game and ability to read defenses so quickly into his career. 

“Joe is a very smart player. After he got his first two, three games, he wasn’t a rookie anymore,” Boyd said, via Tyler Dragon of the Cincinnati Enquirer. “He’s very poised and he understands coverage, he understands football and he knows who to throw it to pre-snap. Just going out and looking at the coverage and looking at the defense and how they’re trying to scheme us up, and he checks us into the right plays.”

Burrow said he would trade his personal statistics for more wins given Cincinnati is just 1-5-1 after losing to the Browns in Week 7. 

“It doesn’t matter to me,” Burrow said. “Football is about letters, not numbers – W and L. We took an L on Sunday.”

• The Athletic’s Paul Dehner Jr. explains the rift between the Bengals and DE Carlos Dunlap goes back to last season with the arrival of the new coaching staff.
• Dunlap had a reputation for turning his effort on and off and the new coaching staff had multiple meetings with him about his effort in games and especially practice, none of which were fruitful. Things finally came to a head with Dunlap’s demotion. 
• Fansided’s Matt Lombardo lists the Bengals as strong candidates to potentially trade for Giants G Kevin Zeitler. They have the salary space and need at guard to be able to pay the mid-round pick the Giants are likely asking for. 
• The Bengals are bringing in G Evan Adams, OT O’Shea Dugas, and OT Brandon Hitner for workouts this week. (Aaron Wilson)
• Bengals HC Zac Taylor said they held an impromptu press conference on Wednesday night in order to give Dunlap a proper send-off: “He deserves to go out the right way.” (Ben Baby)

Browns

• Per Cleveland.com’s Mary Kay Cabot, Browns WR Rashard Higgins said he expects to take the open spot in the starting lineup following the injury to Odell Beckham.

Ravens

Ravens HC John Harbaugh said they will wait to see WR Dez Bryant participate on the practice squad before deciding on whether to promote him. 

“It’s very simple. We’ll just see where he’s at,” Harbaugh said, via ProFootballTalk. “He hasn’t played for how many years? So we’ll see where he’s at. There’s a lot to learn. He looked good in the workout. I don’t think you need to make too much more of it than that. He’s on our practice squad roster, which means he’s available to us. So when and if he’s ready to go, he’ll be out there. It’s just really that simple.”

Ravens QB Lamar Jackson called Bryant’s signing “tremendous” and is excited to see what Bryant is capable of in practice.

“Oh man, it’s tremendous,”  Jackson said. “We just have to see what he’s capable of. I see him on ‘IG’ [Instagram] a lot doing his thing. He’s grinding [and] getting after it. [Executive vice president] Mr. Ozzie [Newsome] and [General Manager] Eric [DeCosta], those guys did a great job upstairs bringing him in. We just have to see if he’s ready, see what he’s capable of and go from there.”