Bengals

Amarius Mims is entering the second year of his career after being a first-round pick by the Bengals in the 2024 NFL Draft. The offensive tackle said he puts an extra emphasis on preparing and learning the playbook. 

“You don’t want to not know what to do, that’s worse than giving up a sack,” Mims said, via Kelsey Conway of the Cincinnati Enquirer. “It shows lack of preparation.”

Mims points out that G Alex Cappa was a big part of helping him learn their system last season. 

“People don’t realize what helped me stay with the 1s (starters) other than Trent going down was (Alex) Cappa beside me helping me with the playbook,” Mims said. “He sat down with me every day and made sure I knew the plays so going into camp I knew all of the plays. I didn’t want to get out there and not know what I was doing.”

Browns

Browns CB Greg Newsome II is expected to move back outside after CB Martin Emerson tore his Achilles during training camp.

“Just growing up, when you think of the greatest corners to play this game, they’re all outside corners,” he said, via Browns Zone. “So that was just the thing. I’m a tall, lengthy guy. I feel like I specialize in man-to-man coverage. So that was just always something that I just loved to do. I love being put on the island. I love having all the eyes on me. If I mess up, I’m willing to take it and then when I do well, I’m willing to take that, too. So it’s just something that, growing up, I love that competition.”

Newsome said that he’s still willing to move back inside if that is what the team needs of him.

“Whatever the team needs me to do, I’m going to end up doing that,” he said. “But I do also like showing my versatility, that I can still play both at an elite level.”

Newsome rushed back from a hamstring injury last year and admitted that he was never fully healthy for the season.

“Not even just necessarily blaming the hamstring, just off of simple not guarding anybody until Week 1,” he said. “Obviously the hamstring does a little bit, but just not being able to go against (Jerry) Jeudy and Coop (Amari Cooper) and (David) Njoku and guys like that before the first game was definitely difficult.”

Newsome remains adamant that he wants to be a “Brown for life” and wants to sign a long-term contract extension with the team.

“Yeah, it’s definitely important,” he said. “But at the end of the day, I feel like it’s important just to get that awful taste out of our mouth from last season. If we win football games, everything that I want to happen for me is going to happen. So my goal is to try to help this team win as best as I can.”

Ravens

• Per ESPN’s Jamison Hensley, the Ravens signed RB D’Ernest Johnson to essentially eat innings in the preseason, with reserve RB Marcus Majors in the concussion protocol and neither RB Derrick Henry nor RB Justice Hill expected to play much in preseason games. 
• Ravens CB Jaire Alexander has been impressing his new team and had two interceptions in a practice recently. Said secondary coach Chuck Pagano: “He’s special. He’s got so much juice, so much energy, so much swag.” (Jeff Zrebiec)

Steelers

• Steelers CB Darius Slay downplayed some of the concerns about his knee that emerged this summer: “I just came off playing in the No. 1 pass defense. Does it look like my knee is an issue? I don’t feel anything there. It’s fine.” (Nick Farabaugh)