AFC Notes: Browns, Marcus Williams, Ravens, Devin Bush, Steelers

Browns

The Cleveland Browns announced seven new hires to their football operations staff. The full list includes:

• Hajriz Aliu, Scouting Assistant. 
• Chris Buford, National Scout.
• Ryan Conway, Scouting Assistant.
• Shawn Heinlen, Southwest Area Scout.
• Catherine Raiche, Assistant General Manager and Vice President of Football Operations.
• Jimmy Raye, Senior Executive Advisor to the General Manager.
• Cyrus Wolford, Scouting Assistant.

Ravens

Ravens DC Mike MacDonald is expecting big things from S Marcus Williams this year, the team’s biggest free-agent signing.

“[Williams] is a great player. It’s great to have him in the building. Similar to Kyle [Hamilton], all the things that you’re expecting to get from a guy like Marcus, we’ve gotten so far. He’s two days in, so it’s really early to tell, but he’ll be a great player for us,” he said via Ravens Wire.

• Ravens HC John Harbaugh said Williams is dealing with “some physical things” which limited him at the end of OTAs but it is not considered a serious injury: “He’s working through some physical things. There are certain guys that have issues that they’re dealing with that they’re going at the pace they can. It’s nothing major.” (Jamison Hensley)

Steelers

Steelers ILBs coach Jerry Olsavsky said LB Devin Bush must get back to his former self prior to sustaining a knee injury.

“Mentally, you have to get to the same person that you were as a kid playing football,” Olsavsky said, via Mark Kaboly of The Athletic. “You lose all of your experience on the knee. I am not saying it was his knee or anything, but that’s an extra load for you coming back. You have to do a lot of little things, what you did as a kid: ‘Hey, I can’t believe I lived through that, but I did and now I can play football.’ Then in your brain, it kind of clicks and you say, ‘I got this,’ and things are back to normal.”

Olsavsky is confident that Bush can be a “great player” but hopes he can have a strong return from his injury. 

“I’ve said it before and will say it again: Devin is a good player and will be a great player,” Olsavsky said. “I played with Rod Woodson, and there is no argument that he is a great player, and I have to also say Rod made some mistakes. We want to get him back to the Devin Bush that we know. The measure is how you respond to adversity. We’ve known that our whole lives.”

Steelers LBs coach Brian Flores mentioned that Bush looks good moving around in practice but can’t truly evaluate him until the pads are on. 

“The physical part, he looks good out there. He is moving around out here, and that’s the case for all of them,” Flores said. “You really can’t evaluate linebackers until you put pads on. It is one thing in shorts but another thing when you have a 330-pound guard coming at you. So far, he’s done a nice job.”