AFC Notes: Bengals, Browns, Steelers

Bengals DT D.J. Reader said he is looking forward to playing in the preseason after suffering a season-ending quad injury last year.

“I think it’s super important for me to get those live game reps,” Reader said, via the Dayton Daily News. “Just getting more confidence in my leg, I think I feel pretty good not really favoring it. I don’t think about it when I’m playing, kind of bothers me more when I’m standing still than when I’m actually out there playing. Things going on, that’s really it. Those are important reps and everybody saw at the beginning of the season last year just how sloppy the players were across the league.”

Reader added it’s a process to get comfortable playing in games again.

“It is at the beginning,” Reader said. “You get flashes. As long as you get those flashes, you get confidence. I had a lot of people around me, a lot of my previous teammates and guys that I’ve played with and friends around the league, they kept me encouraged, told me how it was going to go. They’ve been injured, been down and out and they told me how it was going to go. You’re going to have days where you felt really good and days you didn’t. I took those days, every day as a step. When I did feel good I felt great, and some days I didn’t feel good. I still pushed through.”

Browns

Browns S Grant Delpit reaggravated his hamstring injury, but he doesn’t feel like he has to catch up.

“I’m not behind at all,” Delpit said, via Scott Petrak. “I’ve been preparing and working hard every day, making sure I’m working two times harder than the next person. That’s the mentality you gotta have, so I’m not behind at all.”

Delpit is trying not to get impatient.

“I’ve been taking it slow, just making sure I come back 100 percent,” Delpit said. “It’s frustrating not being out there with my teammates, but when the time comes, I’m available.”

• According to Scott Petrak, Browns G Michael Dunn missed practice with a back injury.
• Browns WR Anthony Schwartz said he’s recovered from a hamstring injury after suffering an aggravation which caused him to miss time. (Nate Ulrich)
• Delpit was on the stationary bike at Thursday’s practice after aggravating a hamstring injury the previous day. (Petrak)
• Browns LT Jedrick Wills participated in team drills on Thursday despite suffering a sprained ankle the previous day. (Ulrich)

Steelers

Even though the Steelers just traded for LB Joe Schobert days ago, the plan seems to be to give him the green dot helmet on defense and the responsibilities of relaying the play call to the rest of the unit. Schobert immediately jumped in with the first-team defense next to former first-round LB Devin Bush, who previously had the green dot responsibilities. 

“We had him in the Pro Bowl (after the 2017 season),” Steelers DC Keith Butler said via the Athletic’s Ed Bouchette. “We knew he was a smart kid then and there was a reason he was at the Pro Bowl. So we got all the confidence in him. Every day he’s going to be getting better. He’ll be more confident in terms of what he’s doing and what his teammates are doing around him. I think that’s probably the biggest thing for him right now, not just learning what he’s doing, because if we ask him to wear the green dot, he’s got to kind of know everything. We think he’s capable.”

Bouchette adds the trade for Schobert and the sudden thrusting upon him of responsibilities raises some questions about Bush, who has struggled some as he recovers from a torn ACL. Butler expressed some public support for Bush, though. 

“We’re not disappointed in Devin at all,” Butler said. “What we want to do right now with Devin is he’s trying to get back healthy, he’s trying to make it back from a knee injury. So we’re trying to keep that weight off of him. He’s still going to help Joe with some of the calls and things like that, some of the things that might happen to him that we haven’t covered. He’s pretty much seen a lot of that. We’re not throwing (Bush) out of the gate. We still like him in there. If we have two guys who know what the crap they’re doing, that’s two quarterbacks we have on our team and we need that.”

• Steelers HC Mike Tomlin confirmed Schobert is lining up with the first-team defense for Saturday’s preseason game: “He’s proven quickly his football intellect is on a professional level.” (Ray Fittipaldo)
• The Steelers and Schboert agreed to a restructured contract which reduced his salary cap hit in 2021 from $7.3 million to $1.74 million. (Gerry Dulac)
• Steelers fourth-round OT Dan Moore Jr. took first-team reps at right tackle on Thursday and has been mixing in through the week to relieve OT Zach Banner. (Brooke Pryor)