AFC Notes: Odell Beckham, Browns, Ravens, Steelers

Browns

• Cleveland.com’s Mary Kay Cabot writes Browns WR David Bell remains in good standing with the team and is going to make the final roster this preseason as a third-round pick just last year. 
• Cabot adds Browns HC Kevin Stefanski was a big fan of Bell as a prospect and saw him as a physical slot receiver in the mold of veteran Jarvis Landry.
• Former third-round WR Anthony Schwartz is on much more tenuous footing but Cabot says he still has a chance because of his speed. She notes he might be a candidate for the practice squad. 

Ravens

For the first time since the Super Bowl in 2022 with the Rams, WR Odell Beckham Jr. returned to a football field as a part of an NFL team, suiting up for his first practice since tearing his ACL in that game and his first practice with the Ravens. It definitely added something special to an otherwise mundane minicamp practice. 

“I’ve been trying to not think about it so much, because there have been so many disappointments, and I’ve been in a good mental headspace to where I’ve tried to downplay this,” Beckham said via the Athletic’s Jeff Zrebiec. “But I definitely think that I’ll be excited to be able to put a jersey on and go out and do the thing that you’ve done your whole life and what you love to do. So, I’m excited about that.”

Beckham didn’t want to put a percentage on how he feels healthwise but said he feels good after about 18 months of recovery. 

“I feel good,” Beckham said. “It feels good to be able to get out of bed and not feel pain. It feels good to feel like if I needed to take off running right now, I could take off running. It’s been a long journey this time around, and it was its own process, so I just had to take that for what it was.” 

Steelers

• In an early 53-man roster projection, the Athletic’s Mark Kaboly notes Steelers WR Calvin Austin, a fourth-round pick in 2022 who missed his entire rookie season on injured reserve, could make WR Gunner Olszewski expendable as a slot receiver and return specialist. 
• Kaboly lists TEs Zach Gentry and Connor Heyward as roster locks, giving Pittsburgh four at the position. 
• Kaboly writes former third-round OL Kendrick Green is firmly on the roster bubble. 
• On the defensive side of the ball, Kaboly believes DL Breiden Fehoko and Isaiahh Loudermilk are close to roster locks, with Montravius Adams and Armon Watts serious challengers to force Pittsburgh to keep seven players here. 
• If that happens, Kaboly has the space coming from either the outside or inside linebacker group, with OLB Quincy Roche, LB Nick Kwiatkoski and LB Tanner Muse on the bubble. 
• Kaboly projects Steelers P Pressley Harvin to hold on in the competition for the starting job against newcomer P Braden Mann.