AFC Notes: Lamar Jackson, Zac Taylor, Bengals, Browns, Ravens

Bengals

Throughout the Bengals’ Super Bowl run in the 2021 season, much of their offensive success was predicated on throwing the ball downfield to WRs Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins. After a disappointing season-opening loss where QB Joe Burrow rarely pushed the ball deep, Cincinnati OC Dan Pitcher knows there’s not one simple reason for their passing struggles.

“There’s no one thing,” Pitcher said, via Paul Dehner Jr. of The Athletic. “I don’t characterize his performance by any type of hesitancy — maybe on a couple of plays. Overall, we’ve just got to be better.”
Pitcher also believes the early pressures given up by the offensive line played a factor in Burrow’s confidence to climb the pocket and make big-time throws.
“I think it can — you’d have to ask Joe that question. Yeah, that’s something that can happen. We go to great lengths to try to limit those situations. It’s a challenging defense. They do things that make you go to the line with one thought, and that’s not what you always go to the line doing. Because you’ve made an adjustment based on an adjustment they’ve made. That’s the cat-and-mouse game. That happens sometimes. That can affect the quarterback. We try not to let it. As the quarterback, you try not to let it affect you. But sometimes it does.”

Bengals HC Zac Taylor highlighted the difficulties in moving the ball past the sticks and stated something different went wrong on each attempt.

“There are things that you call beyond the sticks, that you’re not just throwing the ball beyond the sticks, because that’s oftentimes where they are,” Taylor added. “It’s a fair question that makes sense. I could get into every single rep on why it happened.”
“We’re all accountable for that. I go to bed feeling awful; Joe goes to bed feeling awful. There’s plenty of other players that feel (bad) about (those) little things that they could have controlled that would have been better early in the game.”

Browns

• Browns HC Kevin Stefanski announced DT Maurice Hurst (ankle), TE David Njoku (ankle), LB Tony Fields II (ankle), and LB Mohamoud Diabate (hip flexor) are all week-to-week. (Chris Easterling)
• According to Aaron Wilson, Cleveland worked out P Trenton Gill, P Austin McNamara, and WR Kadarius Toney. Toney wound up signing to the team’s practice squad.
• Per NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo, the Browns will not receive a seventh-round pick from trading K Cade York to the Commanders because he needed to remain on the roster for two games. 

Ravens

Ravens HC John Harbaugh would not get specific when asked why QB Lamar Jackson was not on the practice field on Monday.

“We had a number of guys that weren’t out there — some personal, some physical,” Harbaugh said in his press conference. “So, the injury report comes out Wednesday afternoon, so you’ll be better advised on that day regarding all those guys.”