Bengals

The Bengals are coming off a 33-27 win over the Buccaneers in Week 1. Cincinnati LB coach Mike Hodges said he had to stop himself from being overly critical in his meeting with his linebackers and reassured them he was proud of them. 

“I actually had to stop the meeting today and make sure that they knew I was proud of them and that we did actually win the game,” Hodges said, via Paul Dehner Jr. of The Athletic. “Because I was pretty hard on them and I felt like every play I was critiquing, critiquing, critiquing.”

Hodges said second-year LBs Barrett Carter and Demetrius Knight Jr. didn’t take offense at his critiques. 

“The greatest thing about this room and why I appreciate them so much, they look at me like, ‘You’re good, we know why you are doing this because we can elevate this thing,’” Hodges said.

Carter’s half-sack in Week 1 forced a fumble that enabled Knight to pick it up and score. Carter said it was a play they “expect to make.”

“That’s a play that, quite frankly, being honest, we expect to make that,” Carter said. “I mean that in the most humble way possible. We work toward scoring defensive touchdowns. It’s just step one in the journey. There’s still a lot more plays to be made. A lot of plays left out there we need to make, but the Bengals are 1-0, that’s all we can ask for.”

Ravens

Ravens RB Derrick Henry needs 5,100 rushing yards to catch Hall of Fame RB Emmitt Smith’s all-time leading mark of 18,355. Smith thinks Henry can still catch and pass him, based on how the veteran running back takes care of his body in the 11th year of his career. 

“Oh yeah, I think it’s possible,” Smith said, via Jamison Hensley of ESPN. “Derrick Henry is a bigger back. He takes great care of his body. He’s in great shape.”

Ravens CB Marlon Humphrey thinks Henry’s 144-yard, three-touchdown performance in Week 1 is an example of how he’s still an elite running back. 

“As Derrick keeps getting older, you start thinking, ‘He can’t do this forever,'” Humphrey said. “Then he does that [144 yards in the season opener] and it’s like, ‘Maybe he can.'”

Steelers

Steelers QB Aaron Rodgers said that he “isn’t worried” about WR D.K. Metcalf and said that he’s going to “keep feeding him” targets.

“The whole thing can be deceiving,” Rodgers said, via PFT. “We had PI on a third down that could have been a touchdown. We had another blatant PI on DK that wasn’t called. We had an opportunity to [Roman Wilson] down the field with probably PI not called. He didn’t come up with it. Had DK in the end zone. For sure PI. He still almost made a ridiculous catch. And then one that DK obviously usually catches. One of those goes [our way] or two of those goes, and it’s a whole different conversation. That’s the way the league is. You can’t get too caught up in specific numbers without looking at what actually happened in the game.”