AFC Notes: Joe Burrow, Bengals, Ravens, Lamar Jackson, Steelers

Bengals

Although Bengals president Mike Brown is confident QB Joe Burrow will have a continuous window to compete for a Super Bowl throughout his career, he admits that spending on a quarterback’s contract prohibits teams from developing other positions. 

“He’s going to have a long career,” Brown said, via Ben Baby of ESPN. “We certainly want it to be here. I think his window will extend over his whole career. But there is the fact that when you don’t have to pay the quarterback some extraordinary amount, that leaves room to pay other players more and, therefore, you can keep more players that are good players.”

Burrow is hopeful that Cincinnati will be able to keep a lot of its core players together. 

“Hopefully, a lot of our guys are around for a lot of my career as they can be,” Burrow said. “I have a lot of confidence in the front office doing their jobs in the offseason.”

Brown said that last season’s trip to the Super Bowl made him a believer that they are contenders. 

“It made me something of a believer,” Brown said. “My father’s phrase that winning makes believers of us all, it instilled some confidence in me that we can do this. We’ll see. Maybe it’ll happen again. I sure hope so. It’s very exciting when you get that opportunity to have a long run and go to the Super Bowl.”

Ravens

Ravens HC John Harbaugh confirmed that Lamar Jackson is their franchise quarterback and their entire offense is structured around him. 

“100 percent, 200 percent. There’s no question about it. Lamar Jackson is our quarterback; he’s been our quarterback. Everything we’ve done in terms of building our offense and building our team, how we think in terms of (bringing in) people and putting people around him is based on this incredible young man, his talent, his ability and his competitiveness,” said Harbaugh, via Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic. 

Harbaugh is confident that GM Eric DeCosta will get a deal done. 

“I have every faith that it’s going to get done, and we have the best people in the world doing it. Eric DeCosta, there’s nobody better. Eric wants him here, I want him here, (Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti) wants him here, and Lamar wants to be here. So, it’s going to work out.”

As for their search for a new offensive coordinator, Harbaugh thinks the position is one of the best available in the NFL. 

“We move into the next era now in terms of our offense,” said Harbaugh. “[It’s] one of the top football coaching jobs in the world.”

Steelers

• According to Fox Sports, former Steelers LT Alejandro Villanueva will join FOX Deportes as a lead analyst for Super Bowl LVII.