Bengals
With the addition of OL coach Scott Peters, the Bengals are moving to a more downhill system with an emphasis on double-team blocks. Cincinnati RB Chase Brown is excited for the tweaked running game because it’s the type of offense he ran during his college days.
“It’s exactly how I ran it at Illinois. It will be awesome,” Brown said, via Geoff Hobson of the team’s website. “We’re going to be a more downhill team this year. Eliminate some negative plays. Keep ahead of the chains. That’s what matters in this league. Staying ahead of schedule. It’s extremely important and I think it’s going to help us a lot.”
“Being more downhill lowers the possibility of a negative yardage play. That’s kind of our mindset as a run unit this year. Those quick hitters can be big plays when you make guys miss.”
Browns
Browns QB Shedeur Sanders has gotten most of his reps with the backup squad in minicamp. Sanders is trying to view things with a positive perspective and stay prepared for when his time with the first team comes.
“Life is just based on how you view different things,” Sanders said, via Daniel Oyefusi of ESPN. “So you can view things as you’re not getting reps in a negative way or you can view it as, OK, when it’s my time to get out there, let’s be proactive and let’s get warm, let’s get going. So, there’s no excuses because when you get out there, nobody cares how many reps you got whenever you get in the game. Nobody cares if you took a snap before. Everybody cares about production. So that’s the main thing when you get out there: You got to be able to produce.”
Sanders understands he has a lot of time to develop. He’s staying focused on learning defenses from the veterans around him.
“My goal is to be the best teammate and to be as polished as I can be in every aspect,” Sanders said. “I view things as I got time. I got time to be able to grow and mature and be able to understand the ins and outs of the defenses and be able to get the good insight from the vets in the room. So, I look at it as a plus. I got time to actually be able to really have a great understanding and whenever it’s time for me to play, then it’s time for me to play. But I’m not looking too far in the future about all that. I’m looking [at] every day in practice. … I’m focused on the small things and over time the big things will happen.”
Ravens
Ravens QB Lamar Jackson is currently still being haunted by the team’s loss to the Bills, yet is confident the team will do better next time they are in a similar position.
“We’re going to bounce back,” Jackson said, via Jamison Hensley of ESPN. “And when we come back, I feel like we’re going to have vengeance on our mind…We wish we would have won the game. I wish I didn’t throw that interception. I wish I didn’t fumble. I wish the mishap [with Andrews] didn’t happen. But it happened. It’s just a lesson learned. So next time, we’re going to do something better.”
Ravens GM Eric DeCosta recently said the team is in the “introductory stage” of contract extension talks with Jackson, yet the star quarterback wouldn’t talk about it.
“I never discuss contract situations here,” Jackson said. “I don’t want to talk about it, if that’s OK with you.”
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