AFC North Notes: Browns, Ravens, Steelers

Browns

• According to Mike Silver, several veteran Browns players approached QB Baker Mayfield following his critical comments about RB Duke Johnson. Silver says that the players were able to hash out their differences.
• Ian Rapoport reports that the Browns also placed a waiver claim for CB Montrel Meander on Thursday, but the Jets had the higher waiver priority. 

Ravens

• Ravens S Earl Thomas said of his new team: “I feel like I’m in the right spot.” Thomas added: “These are my type of guys. The culture is dog mentality. That is my type of players.” (Jeff Zrebiec)
• According to Thomas, the biggest adjustment has been learning the complex defensive scheme and making the calls. “It’s football still at the end of the day. Right now, it’s just the terminology. This def. is very complex compared to what we were doing in Seattle. We were running Cover 3 all the time. Now, we’re making calls on the fly. That’s the biggest adjustment.” (Jeff Zrebiec)
• As for his health, Thomas said: “I have my days. For the most part, like today, you never want to get off the field when you’re feeling good. I didn’t want to come out. Usually, I’d take three reps a period, four reps. But I didn’t want to come out today. I felt really good.” (Jeff Zrebiec)
• Ravens G Marshal Yanda said that he isn’t looking past this year and there are no assurances he plays beyond this year, even after signing a one-year contract extension this offseason. (Jeff Zrebiec)
• Yanda did say that he had no thoughts about retiring this offseason after he finished last season healthy. (Jeff Zrebiec) 
• Ravens OLB Matt Judon declined to say whether his agent has had any contract talks with the team. (Jeff Zrebiec)
• John Harbaugh told reporters that he hopes first-round WR Marquise Brown (foot) will be ready for the start of training camp but it’s not certain. Brown is not running at full speed and has yet to be cleared medically. (Jamison Hensley)
• Harbaugh added that both Chris Board and Kenny Young are playing like starters and he expects both of them to rotate at weakside linebacker. (Jeff Zrebiec)

Steelers

Steelers DC Keith Butler mentioned that GM Kevin Colbert did a “great thing” by making the trade up to select ILB Devin Bush.

“I’m not going to criticize the guys that we had there before, but we needed help there and Kevin did a good job of helping us out there,” Butler said, via the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “I’m glad we got him. I hope we can use him, and he has success. I think he wills, but who knows? You don’t know until they start playing. They all look good in shorts. It matters when they get those pads on. . . . The two things I can’t teach them are being aggressive, and the other is speed. He’s got natural speed in terms of hitting. That’s something his mother and daddy gave him, so I’ll be interested to see what kind of hitter he is.”

• According to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, 30-year-old Steelers CB Joe Haden would like a contract extension to retire a Steeler, but the team has not reached out to him about a deal yet.