AFC Notes: Eric DeCosta, Lamar Jackson, Deshaun Watson, Browns, Ravens

Browns

Mike Sando of The Athletic posted his NFL Quarterback Tier rankings for 2024 recently based on opinions from 50 NFL coaches and executives.

Browns QB Deshaun Watson has once again dropped in these rankings down to a Tier 3 option.

“He’s a 3, and it’s just a bad fit,” an executive tells Sando. “You have an RPO quarterback in a play-action offense. Not a good mix.”

A defensive coach can’t exactly put his finger on what has changed about Watson from his time in Houston, but he believes “there is something missing.”

“He’s a better pocket passer than given credit for, but he’s always been slow going through his progressions because he knew if it broke down, people could not catch him,” a defensive coach said. “A lot of stuff he did (with Houston), there was designed RPOs and movement plays for him. Maybe the processing is a tick slow. I can’t explain it. It just feels like there is something missing.”

“I wonder if he loves it enough,” an offensive coach added. “He should be way better than this.”

Ravens

Ravens GM Eric DeCosta spoke about the unknown of having younger players on the offensive line, as the salary cap forced Baltimore to go with a more inexperienced core to protect QB Lamar Jackson this season.

“I think it is a little bit of an unknown because we haven’t played as a unit in games. We’ve seen it in practice,” DeCosta said, via Pro Football Talk. “Across the board, we made the decision to start to build up the line with young players. Unfortunately, with a salary cap league, you just can’t build a team with veterans at every position. If you could, it’d be great. I grew up a Cowboys fan, and the 1993 Dallas Cowboys, one of the great teams of all time, if that team had been able to stay together forever they would’ve won Super Bowls every year. But there is a salary cap and there is free agency. And so you have to pay players, but you also have to understand you’ve got to draft and you’ve got to develop young players as well. And we have started to do that on the offensive line. . . . We may have some hiccups along the way, but we’ve started to build from the bottom up and I think a year from now we’ll be in a great place.”

Ravens

Ravens CB Brandon Stephens is heading into his final year under contract after starting 16 regular season games a year ago. Baltimore GM Eric DeCosta would love to bring Stephens back but understands how difficult it will be with the cost of cornerbacks in the NFL.

“He’s a guy that we certainly want to keep him here long term. . . . It’s not without challenge,” DeCosta said, via Matt Ryan of the team’s website. “He plays a position where the best players are highly compensated, but we’ll do our best. I just admire so many things about Brandon. This guy has had some adversity, he’s overcome so many different things; position changes, transfers, and all these things, and he’s made himself one of the best corners in the NFL.”