AFC Notes: Bengals, Browns, Steelers

Bengals

In normal years, we would have gotten our first glimpse of the No. 1 overall pick, Bengals QB Joe Burrow, in his team’s helmet and jersey by now during rookie camp and OTAs. However, no NFL teams have been able to take the field together, so work is limited to virtual meetings. As far as that’s concerned, Bengals OC Brian Callahan says so far, so good. 

“Joe Burrow’s been outstanding and so have all the other quarterbacks,” Callahan said via Tyler Dragon of the Cincinnati Enquirer. “It’s been fun. We really get to talk about a lot of things that sometimes you don’t get to talk about this time of year because we are just meeting a lot. I’m sure they are tired of meeting. I know it kind of wears on you eventually. They’ve been locked in and they’ve been responding to everything. As far as learning it and picking it up, they’ve been great.”

Browns

Browns OC Alex Van Pelt said QB Baker Mayfield has “done everything” he expects from him and has joined other position meetings during their virtual program. 

“He’s done everything I’d expect from him as a starting quarterback,’’ Van Pelt said, via Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “His work ethic is great. He jumps into other meetings that aren’t required, and he’ll sit in the receiver meetings when they have them and will sit in running back meetings from time to time, as well. He’s all in. He’s doing it exactly how we expect him to do it.’’

According to Van Pelt, Mayfield recently set up a throwing session with nine other teammates in Austin, Texas.  

“We obviously were not involved as far as setting that up or anything,’’ said Van Pelt. “That’s something they did on their own. We didn’t see any footage from that. I did just get one quick video of Baker just showing the guys in full lather after a workout.’’

Van Pelt said he’s been able to help work with Mayfield on his footwork using virtual broadcasts. 

“As far as the footwork goes, that’s the part that you can actually coach over the Internet, which is cool,” Van Pelt said. “The quarterbacks are sending the videos of their footwork to me. I can now go back, break it down and get on a one-on-one Zoom meeting with them and kind of coach them through the correction process of all the footwork we are going to use.”

Steelers

• The Athletic’s Ed Bouchette says the Steelers still see QB Mason Rudolph as a quality backup, which is why they weren’t interested in QB Jameis Winston and likely won’t be interested in QB Cam Newton.
• Bouchette can see the Steelers extending QB Ben Roethlisberger again in 2021 if he plays well this year, as he’ll have a $41.25 million cap hit in the final year of his deal.