Browns
Browns HC Kevin Stefanski said he has not spoken to TE David Njoku after he requested a trade last month but is “excited to work with him.”
“We believe in David, excited to work with him,” Stefanski said, via Andrew Gribble of the team’s official site. “I’ll get to finally be in the same room as him this weekend – he’s coming in for physicals – and then get out on the field with him Monday. Excited to work with him.”
Regarding Browns WR Jarvis Landry‘s recovery from hip surgery in February, Stefanski said the receiver “remains on schedule.”
“He remains on schedule based on everything he has done post-surgery,” Stefanski said.
As for Browns’ second-year RG Drew Forbes opting out of the 2020 season, Stefanski said they will try the “next man up” and continue to evaluate who starts at right guard in place of Forbes.
“There should be competition at a lot of positions, that’s the fun part of training camp and I think our guys are eager to compete,” Stefanski said. “Drew made a decision. I respect his decision. It’s the ‘next man up’ mentality and we’ll see how it all shakes out.”
Steelers
Steelers DC Keith Butler is expecting big things from LB Devin Bush in his sophomore season after a strong rookie campaign.
“Of course, you want Devin to make a good jump for us this year, and I think he will because things won’t be new to him,” said Butler, via Bob Labriola of Steelers.com. “He has done it before, and we’re going to expect more out of him. We’re going to want him to help make calls and get the communication down, and we think he’s capable of doing that. We think he’s going to really come alive for us this year. He played well for us last year as a rookie, but once you’ve been there and seen the game a little bit, he knows the speed of the game, he knows what we’re going to call for the most part. He’s got an idea of what we’re going to expect of him. We’re hopeful he’s going to have a good year for us.”
Butler also touched on Bush’s partner in the middle, LB Vince Williams, who is expected to remain as a starter in Pittsburgh despite questions about him. Butler seemed to have the answer to those inquiries.
“He’s a great communicator,” said Butler about Williams. “As we went back and looked at our (2019) video and graded ourselves, if anything went wrong with our defense it was more on our communication, and really on our secondary communication. There’s primary communication, which starts at the first part of the play, and as the play starts to play out a little bit there’s secondary communication when sometimes you have to make adjustments. And Vince is real good at doing that for us and getting the calls to the guys and making sure they know that we’re all on the same page. That’s big for us, and that’s what Vince Williams brings to the table. He’s very physical and we feel like if we get him one-on-one with a back, then he’s going to win that matchup. We feel like he’s a good rusher of the passer. We think that he can cover, maybe not as well as Devin, but he does a sufficient job of it for us. We’ll see when we get to different personnel groups in terms of what offenses give us as to how we’ll use our personnel.”
Texans
Texans DE J.J. Watt was coming off his first relatively healthy season in years heading into 2019. But unfortunately for Watt, a torn pec landed him on injured reserve for half the season even though he was able to come back late in the year. Houston’s defense relies heavily on what Watt brings to the table, so fortunately for the Texans Watt is feeling healthy again heading into 2020.
“My body feels as good as it’s felt since probably 2014, 2015 somewhere around there,” Watt said via Deepi Sidhu of the team’s website. “So I’m really looking forward to getting into camp and just getting to work.”
Watt he did not have a difficult decision toward not opting out of the 2020 season.
“For me personally it wasn’t tough. I’m fortunate to not have anyone in my direct line of life to have underlying conditions,” said Watt, via Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle.
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