AFC Notes: Bengals, Ravens, Steelers

After his first taste of game action since winning the national championship at LSU with Bengals second-year QB Joe Burrow, fifth-overall rookie WR Ja’Marr Chase was happy to finally be back on the football field.

“Practice was much faster than the game we played today,” Chase said, via Bengals beat writer Geoff Hobson. “But (the play) happened so fast, I couldn’t even what happened after that.”

Second-year WR Tee Higgins asked Chase to break down what he saw on the screen pass he took for a total of 16 yards after he came off the field.

“Tee kept asking me to describe the play to him,” Chase said. “I couldn’t tell him what happened. He said I’m slow. I’m supposed to burst, I’m supposed to score. I said, ‘But I’m trying to set up my next block so I can easily walk in.“‘

While he didn’t score on the play, Chase was happy that he was able to get his feet wet with a chunk play to start off the preseason.

“But I’ll take it,” Chase said. “It was cool hanging with the boys on the sidelines. It just showed we’re growing.”

Ravens

• Ravens HC John Harbaugh said QB Trace McSorley will miss the rest of the preseason with a back injury. (Adam Schefter)
• Harbaugh added OG Ben Cleveland has a concussion but could be back for join practices vs. Carolina. (Jeff Zrebiac)

Steelers

New Steelers’ LB Joe Schobert said his trade from Jacksonville came out of nowhere after the contract he signed with the Jaguars in free agency last year.

“I think it came out of the blue, from my perspective,” Schobert said, via Brooke Pryor of ESPN. “Nothing really, no warning signs or predetermined stuff. I was talking to defensive coaches right after I talked to the general manager, and they were pretty shocked about it. It’s stressful, especially in the middle of training camp. Got a wife, kid, dog. House down in Jacksonville; got to figure out the logistics of moving them up. I wouldn’t say I was sad, no — stressful. A little shock to the system.”

Jaguars’ GM Trent Baalke told Schobert that the Steelers had called and were “persistent” about acquiring him. However, Steelers’ HC Mike Tomlin tells a different story.

“I wouldn’t put you in it if it wasn’t a good situation for you and your family, coming up to Pittsburgh, good team,'” Schobert said Baalke told him. “That’s what I was told.”

“It presented itself to us, but it didn’t take us long to consider it because we’re highly familiar with his skill set and productivity,” Tomlin said of the trade. “We’re excited about having him. Productivity, when I think of Joe. He needs no endorsement from me. We’re familiar with him. Former AFC North guy, been highly productive in every circumstance that he’s been in. He’s a sideline-to-sideline tackler, he’s good in coverage, he has coverage production in terms of interceptions, he has sack production. He plays a well-rounded game and so we’re excited about infusing him into what we do.”

Schobert isn’t particularly concerned about catching on quickly with the Steelers and learning their defense, even though the team is asking him to call plays defensively as a dime and mike linebacker.

“This will be my sixth scheme in six years of learning,” said Schobert. “I’ve done a lot of similar things. Mostly the biggest difference is the jargon, the language of the defense, just getting on par with everyone else and communicating with them on the field. I don’t know how many reps I’ll get before it’ll feel great before I’ll be 100 percent comfortable making all the calls and communicating with everyone on defense. But I think it’ll be a pretty fluid, pretty easy process, especially with all the veterans.”