AFC Notes: Browns, Dolphins, Raiders

Browns

Browns OL Cameron Erving admitted that his career hasn’t gotten off to the kind of start he expected since Cleveland used a first-round pick on him back in 2015.

“It’s definitely been two trying years of my career, but I don’t feel like they’ve gone bad,” Erving said, via ClevelandBrowns.com. “I feel that I’ve done what I’ve needed to do and just moving forward, you’ve got to worry about what’s coming, not what’s in the past.”

Browns executive VP of football operations Sashi Brown mentioned that while they would like to see Erving stick at one position, he has the athleticism to play all over the offensive line.

“We would like to solidify him at a position, but we do know Cam is such a great athlete that he can play multiple positions and in fairness, I think he understands he wants his play to take a step forward this year,” Brown said. “He is working hard at it this spring.”

Dolphins

Dolphins HC Adam Gase admits it was a mistake to limit DE Cameron Wake‘s playing time last year.

“I made a mistake. I should have been playing him more early,” Gase said, via James Walker of ESPN. “We were trying to think long term. … We thought we were being smart and it backfired on us. What we should have done was just let him play.”

Wake appreciated the apology from his coach and believes Gase’s willingness to admit mistakes is one of the reasons why players respect him.

“Well, we’re all human, right? We all make mistakes,” Wake said. “Players make them on the field. Coaches make them off the field. As a man in this game, you’ve got to be able to admit when that happens. I think there are probably other coaches who don’t do that and obviously with him being a different kind of guy, I think that’s part of the reason why guys respect him, why guys relate to him and why guys love him.”

Raiders

Now that the Raiders have locked up QB Derek Carr to a record five-year, $125 million extension, the expectation is that they will now turn their attention to signing G Gabe Jackson to a new deal.

Raiders GM Reggie McKenzie confirmed that Jackson is a priority for them, but there’s still no timetable for a deal.

“There’s no timetable,” McKenzie said. “But, I alluded to earlier in the offseason that Gabe is one of the guys I want to get locked up.”

Scot Bair of CSN Bay Area mentions that the Raiders currently have around $18 million of salary cap space to work with after signing Carr, but will need a portion of this to sign their top three draft picks.

This could be a tricky negotiation for the Raiders, considering that salaries for guards have gone up dramatically in recent years and Oakland is already paying Kelechi Osemele $58.5 million over five years. They’ll also need some money to retain OLB Khalil Mack down the road, so McKenzie will have to do his best to balance all of this.