Bengals
Bengals OC Brian Callahan said the team has to protect QB Joe Burrow better vs. Kansas City.
“There’s multiple things that go into it,” Callahan said, via Bengals.com. “Some of it was five-man protection related. They were bringing some zero blitzes into our five-man protections and one or two times we tried to kind of hold onto it and take a shot down field. That didn’t work out in our favor. Certainly have to be better there. The games and the twists and stunts and things that we’ve got to pick up a little bit better.”
“Can we be smarter about holding the ball? If there’s an opportunity to get rid of it, we’d like to get rid of it. Then you just have to win one-on-one and sometimes guys are going to lose and again, we’re okay with that. It happens. But nine sacks is more than obviously you’d want to see in any particular game and it’s got to be better this week.”
Ravens
- The Athletic’s Jeff Zrebiec writes from the sound of things currently, there’s a sizable gap between the Ravens and FB Patrick Ricard on contract talks. Ricard is a pending free agent and Zrebiec points out the Ravens brought back former fifth-round FB Ben Mason on a futures deal.
- Zrebiec lists DE Calais Campbell, OT Alejandro Villanueva, CB Jimmy Smith, S Anthony Levine and OLB Pernell McPhee as players on retirement watch, adding two of those players are pretty far down the road on a decision.
- ESPN’s Jamison Hensley notes with the two sides currently far apart in contract negotiations, the Ravens do have options to replace C Bradley Bozeman, including OL Patrick Mekari and C Trystan Colon-Castillo.
- Ravens DL Derek Wolfe tweeted he had successful hip surgery.
Steelers
- Per PFN’s Aaron Wilson, multiple league sources have indicated Steelers WR JuJu Smith-Schuster would be interested in signing with the Chiefs this year in free agency. Smith-Schuster nearly signed with them last year before returning to Pittsburgh.
- However, ESPN’s Brooke Pryor says not to rule out Smith-Schuster coming back to Pittsburgh. She points out they found a way to bring him back last season when they had even less cap space and it was obvious they missed his energy this season.
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