AFC Notes: Russell Wilson, Ken Dorsey, Deshaun Watson, Andrei Iosivas, Bengals, Browns, Steelers

Bengals

Bengals WR Andrei Iosivas is a strong contender to replace WR Tyler Boyd‘s void in the team’s slot receiver role.

“I took every rep in the slot today,” Iosivas said, via Pro Football Network. “I never played F at all last year, or even in the spring.”

The team notified Iosivas of their intentions for him to try out the slot position. He watched film of Boyd last year and was sure to take notes.

“I didn’t feel uncomfortable,” Iosivas said. “I was watching a lot of tape, watching a lot of TB and how he gets certain leverages against certain coverages. I had a lot of good films to watch.”

Bengals OC Dan Pitcher said that it remains to be seen whether or not one player or multiple players fill the void left by Boyd in the offense.

“With TB leaving, there’s a lot of targets that left the building,” Pitcher said. “Maybe somebody plays themselves into the position where it is primarily one individual over the next month plus. Maybe five guys play themselves into some portion of that segment of our offense. We’re open to all those things. I feel good about the five, six, seven guys that are going to get a chance to vie for some of those opportunities,” he continued. “And I think they’re going to do a good job and hopefully give us some really hard decisions to make as coaches as to who to put in those spots.”

• Bengals HC Zac Taylor called DEs Sam Hubbard and Trey Hendrickson day-do-day regarding their injury status. (Jay Morrison)

Browns

Browns GM Andrew Berry explained the organization’s thought process in hitting the reset button on the offense and hiring OC Ken Dorsey this offseason. The goal was to further cater the scheme to QB Deshaun Watson in an effort to get his career back on track. 

“As an OC, he’s always had a top-10 offense,” Berry said via ESPN’s Dan Graziano. “He really turned Josh Allen‘s career, and Cam Newton was an MVP under his tutelage. He’s a real good quarterback guy, a real good pass-game guy, and then just philosophically, we wanted to be better in the dropback game, the RPO game and really kind of expand our use of motion in our core concepts — and also increase our tempo. Those are all areas where Ken has excelled everywhere he’s been.”

Graziano adds the Browns felt like their previous scheme hadn’t been doing Watson any favors and put him in too many unfavorable positions. By passing more on early downs, Berry thinks they’ll be able to set Watson up for success better. 

“It’s really first-down efficiency and staying out of third-down situations,” Berry said. “Because the hardest thing for an offense to do — and specifically for a quarterback to do — is operate in third-and-medium-to-long when you’re in obvious passing situations; you have to just drop back and win. Now, that’s why the guys make money, because they have to be able to convert some of those. But even the best offenses, they convert maybe just right around half.”

Steelers

Steelers QB Russell Wilson spoke about being a mentor to QB Justin Fields even prior to them both joining Pittsburgh at the start of the offseason.

“Yeah, I think more than anything else, we’ve known each other for some years now, and I’ve always tried to be a mentor in some way to him,” Wilson said, via Pro Football Talk. “We’ve always texted, called, whatever it may be in the past, and same thing now. I believe that when you give as much knowledge that I have, or experienced or gone through, it comes back in return for you in the long run. We’re a team and we’re always trying to get better together. Every rep that he’s taking, I’m learning, and vice versa. Every rep that I’m taking, he’s learning. And all the other quarterbacks, as well. Even when we’re not in there, and we’re just processing from the drill work, we’re always talking and communicating. So, I think that’s a critical part to being successful as a team. He’s working his butt off every day, and we’re getting better as a team,”