AFC Notes: Browns, Ravens, Steelers

Browns

Browns LB Mack Wilson got a chorus of rebukes for tackling RB Nick Chubb during training camp and giving his teammate a concussion. But that didn’t sting quite as much as what happened the next day when Wilson hyperextended his knee and had to be carted from practice. 

“It was really tough,” Wilson said via Cleveland.com’s Mary Kay Cabot. “For me to make a bad decision with tackling Chubb when we shouldn’t be tackling, I felt like it was karma, honestly, with me going back the next day and getting hurt.”

Wilson thought his 2020 season was over that day. But he got good news in the coming days about the severity of the injury and has been able to work his way back to a return to the practice field this week. 

“Even when I went down that day, I was just thinking to myself, ‘Why me?’” Wilson said. “I thought I was going to be done for the season with all the pain I was feeling. I constantly started praying when I got on the cart just to get back good news after I have my MRI and things like that. I’ve been working extremely hard every day with treatment and doing all of the right things so that I can come back. . . .

“I was just telling myself every day, ‘I’m a warrior. I’m built for this. I know I’ll be back sooner than six to eight weeks.’ That was my goal to take it one day at a time and do everything they told me to do, and now, I am here today.”

Ravens

• Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic says the Ravens got even more bad news about CB Tavon Young when an MRI confirmed that he tore the ACL in his left knee for the second time in three years and will miss the remainder of the season.
• Young had previously signed a three-year, $25.8 million contract extension in February of 2019 and has only played in two games since. He missed all of 2017 with an ACL tear and also did not appear in 2019 after suffering a neck injury in training camp. The future of his career not just with the Ravens, but in football is now in question.
• Zrebiec says some possible veteran free agent replacements for Young could include veterans Prince Amukamara, Tramaine Brock, and Morris Claiborne.

Steelers

• Bleacher Report’s Matt Miller says that, according to one top agent who typically represents a handful of top rookie quarterbacks, the Steelers come up a lot in NFL circles as a team that could make an aggressive move for a passer in the 2021 NFL Draft: “When I talk to teams to get a feel for the quarterback market, the most common team mentioned as needing a quarterback is Pittsburgh. There is a very strong belief that they add a Round 1 quarterback and would be willing to trade up to get one.”
• Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence, Ohio State’s Justin Fields and North Dakota State’s Trey Lance are the trio at the top of most draft boards and all could go in the top ten picks. 
• Per ESPN’s Brooke Pryor, Steelers HC Mike Tomlin said G David DeCastro should return to practice this week after missing the first two games with a knee injury.
• Tomlin added OLB Bud Dupree (shoulder), DL Tyson Alualu (knee contusion) and WR Diontae Johnson (toe) could all be limited in practice this week. (Ray Fittipaldo)