Bengals

Bengals DE Shemar Stewart is entering the second year of his career after appearing in just eight games as a rookie, recording just one sack, two tackles for loss, and 11 tackles. Stewart admitted that he would have moments where he would “overthink” in 2025. 

“Last year I would go out there and I’m saying, ‘I somewhat know what I need to do, but I’m not 100 percent sure,” Stewart said, via Jay Morrisson of SI. “And then I go out there and I overthink. Then I don’t make a play. Then it’s just a whole lot of things because I’m just too up in here.”

Stewart said he finally received praise from DL coach Jerry Montgomery during this offseason practice. 

“I think I got my first ‘good job,’ from Jerry,” Stewart said. “That’s my guy. He never gave up on me. Always held me close even though when I wasn’t performing good, he always stood by me.”

Stewart appeared in both edge and interior roles last season. He thinks it’s important to have “diversity” in his game. 

“In the league, you’ve got to have diversity when it comes to play because if you’re not diverse in what you do, people could pick up on what you’re doing,” Stewart said. “So knowing the playbook and knowing all the jobs to a T could benefit me way more in the long run. I’ve just been dialed in to the playbook and listening to what my coaches got to say.”

Browns

Browns GM Andrew Berry spoke at length about the trade of DE Myles Garrett during a press conference following the big news on Monday.

“I didn’t expect to be up here talking about a Myles Garrett trade,” Berry said, via NFL.com. “This is not my favorite thing to do because, like I said, I didn’t have it on the bingo card and I realize how strong I’ve been with Myles. But the reality is when you have an opportunity to do something that has strong both short- and long-term benefits, we have to be flexible with it. We’re real excited from a team perspective.”

“One of the things that’s unique about this deal relative to maybe the other non-QB superstar deals that come out is we made a trade with players and picks,” Berry continued. “Usually when you make these trades, you’re completely trading off present for future. To get a player like Jared in the deal, where the defense still maintains its excellence, that was really attractive to us.”

“I always told myself that if we were ever in a position to trade Myles, three things would have to be true,” Berry added. “No. 1, it would have to have short- and long-term benefits. No. 2, as part of the trade, a young, cost-controlled star at a premium position would have to be included. And the third piece is it would have to be premium draft capital. And there’s a very small set of deals that really satisfy those constraints. So, when it got to the point with our negotiations with the Rams when all those things were satisfied, it really caused us to take a step back and really think about the decision.”

Berry believes that the team receiving DE Jared Verse in return, who has two Pro Bowls in two seasons and was also Defensive Rookie of the Year, was the largest part of the team agreeing to the deal.

“Jared Verse, he’s a huge part of this return for us. Jared is an outstanding football player. Former Defensive Rookie of the Year, two-time original ballot Pro Bowler and he’s a perfect DNA match for our attacking front. He’s really a terror in both phases as a run defender and pass rusher. And we are really excited to add him to our team. He allows us to continue to play defense at a high level, which is our standard over the past several seasons and we are excited to welcome him to the organization. So, we’re excited about the transaction, and it wasn’t something that we anticipated coming into this year or spring or quite honestly coming out of the draft. But it’s a great opportunity for our team.”

“No regrets. In terms of why now, the why now is just quite honestly the opportunity was too great,” Berry noted. “It wasn’t like a Plan A going into the offseason, quite honestly, we would have operated differently if it was. But sometimes things come across your path that you’re just, you’re not expecting and you can’t be so dogmatic in your strategy and planning that you can’t adjust and be flexible to great opportunities. Myles will be a part of many of our lives beyond his playing career. It’s maybe more of a ‘see you later’ than a ‘goodbye,’ to sound maybe a little bit corny.”

Ravens

Ravens QB Lamar Jackson is notable for not having an agent and representing himself in contract talks with GM Eric DeCosta, telling reporters that he will keep the conversations private but wants to remain in Baltimore for the remainder of his career.

“I just want to keep those conversations private,” Jackson said, via The Athletic. “We restructured the deal, and that’s what we have right now.”

“Absolutely. I love the Ravens,” Jackson said when asked if he wanted to remain in Baltimore. “I love this organization. I love this city. This is the team that drafted me. Got a lot of love for me. I’ve got a lot of love for the city and this team as well. Like I told you, the reconstruction is done. Cool with that. But I love Baltimore. Everybody should know that by now.”