Bengals

Bengals QB Joe Burrow is aware that the team must live up to expectations in 2026, especially after the addition of a player like DL Dexter Lawrence to the defense.

“I think that’s great. Put pressure on guys. I love it,” Burrow said, via NFL.com.. “I thrive in it. We’ll find out who else does. I know that we have the kind of people that want to be in that spot. I want everybody talking about the Bengals. I want everybody talking about what I’m saying in my press conferences. You go back and watch what I’ve said before. 2019 season at LSU, I feel very similarly about this team. I’m so excited to get started and get moving. I wish we would ramp this right into training camp, so we can continue to improve because I feel like there’s so much greatness that we’re gonna be able to achieve this year.”

“This is a lot of urgency, a lot of urgency this year, certainly,” Burrow added. “We have everything we need. We’re deep at just about every single position on the team. We’ve talked in the locker room this year about in years past, you wonder who’s going to make the team, and it was top-heavy, and you wonder about the bottom guys. This year, it’s guys that were once that top level, they’re on the team for sure now, [but] there’s a lot of competition at those spots on the 53, 54, 55, at the end of that list. This is the first year that that is really the case in my opinion. It’s an exciting place to be when you have too many good players. We’re going in expecting to win every game that we step foot on the field. Obviously, you want to win a Super Bowl, and that’s certainly the plan, but you’ve got to take it one day at a time, one week at a time. I’m excited for the journey.”

Browns

Browns Hall of Fame LT Joe Thomas commented on the state of the franchise following the trade of DE Myles Garrett, noting that it hurts everyone that Garrett is no longer a Brown.

“For Cleveland fans, it’s tough, right? Because for several of those seasons that Myles was here in Cleveland, he was like the one thing we got to cheer for,” Thomas said during an appearance on SiriusXM NFL Radio. “Last year, out of the playoff hunt for a long time, but he gave us a reason to be proud as Browns fans, chasing that sack record. And to finally get it, just to see the commitment that he had on the field to his team and to the city, it was incredible. So, it was really hard to hear that he was traded. It hurts everybody that Myles is not a Brown anymore.”

“But I’m not willing to accept the fact that we’re only allowed to think that our ceiling as Browns fans is to cheer for a player that is having a good season or chasing a record,” Thomas added. “I don’t want to lose sight of the fact that we’re still here to try to win championships, and when you look at the Myles trade, to be able to get a great young player like Jared Verse, who is a tremendous pass rusher, who is a great asset to that team, he’s on a friendly contract there. Getting three draft choices for Myles, first, second and a third, it puts us in a much better position for the next two, three, four years as we’re in this building phase. So, as you step away from the emotion of losing Myles, you realize this puts the team in a much better situation moving forward. And it was the right decision even though it hurts.”

Ravens

Coming off a rookie year where he made 30 of 34 field goal attempts, Ravens K Tyler Loop is remaining focused on the process instead of the results of each kick. He feels carrying emotion from kick to kick is a recipe for failure in the long run.

“You either made the kick, fact, or you missed the kick, fact,” Loop said, via Steve Rudden. “It has to be completely flushed away next kick on the emotional side of it.”

“You have to be able to look at it objectively,” he added. “My process hasn’t broken… The mental process … that’s going to stay the same.”