Bengals
- The Athletic’s Jeff Howe notes an extension for Bengals S Jessie Bates will be one of the team’s top priorities this coming offseason.
- Bengals DC Lou Anarumo said they are grateful to have CB Trae Waynes despite him dealing with a hamstring injury: “There’s a lot of people that would love to have a guy like that in the bullpen right now.” (Ben Baby)
Browns
- The Athletic’s Jeff Howe writes that while the situation with QB Baker Mayfield obviously bears watching, the Browns also hope to get an extension done with CB Denzel Ward as he enters his contract year on the fifth-year option in 2022.
- Browns LG Joel Bitonio had high praise of fourth-round OT James Hudson III: “He’s worked really hard to improve himself.” (Scott Petrak)
- Petrak notes Hudson is likely to start at right tackle in Week 14.
Ravens
Attrition seems to finally be catching up to the Ravens and QB Lamar Jackson. After a stellar start to the season that had him in the conversation for his second career MVP award, Jackson and the Ravens have tailed off the past three weeks. He has just three passing touchdowns to six interceptions in that span and Baltimore is 1-2. But the Ravens’ confidence in him isn’t shaken.
“For anybody … that’s their story — the challenges that you face,” Ravens HC John Harbaugh said via ESPN’s Jamison Hensley. “It’s never going to be easy. Sometimes it maybe seemed easy and seems easy, and sometimes you get on a roll, but it’s too competitive. Everybody is too good for it to be easy all the time. And he doesn’t expect that -– none of us do. So, we’ve just got to work through it, fight through it and get the job done.”
Jackson thinks there are things they can take from the past few weeks and build on, but it’s important for them to find consistency as their schedule toughens up considerably going forward.
“You saw on the last drive, we were rolling,” Jackson said. “We hit passes, guys running routes and doing what they do, catching the ball and getting [yards after the catch]. We just do that consistently, and we’ll be fine. We’ve just got to do it early and keep it going, finish the whole game like that. Not just doing [it for] one half and slowing down.”
- Ravens OC Greg Roman said their offense must continue working on protecting against the blitz and points out that they have missed audibles or signals: “There are times where the plan involves an audible, a check, a signal. There are times when you just got to make the play work and there are built-in things. We just got to keep working at it.” (Jamison Hensley)
Steelers
- The Athletic’s Jeff Howe mentions the Steelers are No. 12 in projected cap space for 2022 at more than $40 million, giving them the flexibility to go after a veteran quarterback, address the offensive line and decide on pending free agents like WR JuJu Smith-Schuster, CB Joe Haden and S Terrell Edmunds.
- ESPN’s Dan Graziano says there’s a persistent thought inside the league that this could be Steelers GM Kevin Colbert‘s last season in Pittsburgh.
- ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler writes it’s hard to imagine Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger hitting the open market and negotiating with other teams. He adds the prevailing expectation is that the veteran will retire after the season.
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