AFC Notes: Bengals, Steelers, Texans

Bengals

Bengals’ director of player personnel Duke Tobin said earlier in the week that LB Vontaze Burfict‘s recent suspension is “not ideal.”

“It’s not ideal,” Tobin said, via the Cincinnati Enquirer. “The situation he has put us in is not ideal. We are a player-oriented business. Players that can make a difference are important and we recognize that. The more he’s not available to us the more it hurts us.”

Tobin admitted that the idea of moving on from Burfict has come up in the past, but their focus on fielding the best possible team.

“Do we have conversations on that a lot? Sure, we have conversations on that a lot,” Tobin said. “But at the end of the day we are a player-oriented business and the players are the ones that win or lose for us. We try to collect as many players that can help us win. That’s our job. That’s what we do. That’s our responsibility as an organization: To try to put the best football team on the field that we possibly can.

“It’s not ideal when a guy is not available to us and we recognize that, but our over-riding thought is how to field the best football team we can possibly field.”

Steelers

While the Steelers have a limited amount of cap space to work with, GM Kevin Colbert said recently that this doesn’t necessarily mean they’re done in free agency.

“I wouldn’t say we’re done with free agency, because stuff changes,” Colbert said.

Jeremy Fowler of ESPN points out that the Steelers were able to add two starters in S Morgan Burnett and LB Jon Bostic despite having around $6.5 million of available cap space to work with at the start of free agency.

According to Fowler, Pittsburgh Steelers showed interest in a number of free agent inside linebackers including Todd Davis and Preston Brown before dropping out of the running once the bidding got too high.

“We just let it play out,” Colbert said about their approach toward free agency. “We knew when we looked at the market we knew that we were only going to be able to do certain things within our own limitations, again, after we made the reductions on our own roster. So as the market unfolds we reacted to it and we were happy to get Burnett and John Bostic from the picks.”

Texans

• According to Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle, the Texans signed QB Brandon Weeden to a one-year, $880,000 contract.
• Wilson adds that Weeden’s contract includes $230,000 guaranteed, which breaks down to a $90,000 signing bonus and $140,000 of his $790,000 base salary.