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AFC Notes: Shemar Stewart, Alex Wright, Bengals, Browns, Ravens

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Bengals

  • Bengals executive Duke Tobin on Shemar Stewart: “I hope Shemar comes in. He needs to be here and he can be a part of a championship team…Shemar needs to be here. I’m not going to blame Shemar. He’s listening to the advice he’s paying for.” (Ben Baby)
  • Bengals OC Dan Pitcher on the signing of QB Desmond Ridder, while still noting that QB Jake Browning is the backup: “It was a chance to get better.” (Morrison)
  • Bengals QB Joe Burrow on Stewart’s absence: “The earlier we get these things done, the better.” (Kelsey Conway)
  • Burrow says there always seems to be contract issues at this time of year: “Frustrating … but that’s how things go. It’s a cutthroat business and you have to fight for everything you can get…I’m in constant contact with Trey Hendrickson.” (Paul Dehner Jr.)

Browns

Browns DE Alex Wright said it’s no surprise that the opportunity to start opposite of DE Myles Garrett is up for grabs, as DL coach Jacques Cesaire told the unit this off-season.

“It’s not an elephant in the room,” Wright said, via Cleveland.com. “Everybody knows and Jacques, he set it out. You take it on the chin; you acknowledge it and you pretty much soul search. That’s what I do. I mean obviously they’re looking for the person that’s next to Myles who’s going to be on the other side. And if you don’t come in and do what you got to do, it won’t be you. You either accept the challenge or you shy away from it. And I don’t plan on shying away from anything. I haven’t shied away from a thing in my life.”

Wright added that he tried to put off surgery and didn’t want to end his potential breakout season prematurely.

“I fought my agent many times,” Wright said. “Nobody wants to stop playing after you’re playing good and when you make certain plays like that (against Jacksonville). I thought about it sitting on the surgery bed, just, ‘How can I get back? How can I get better?’”
 
Wright is fully healthy and ready to enter training camp to prove that he’s capable of handling a starting role.
 
“Physically I’ve been stronger than ever,” Wright said. “I feel like I haven’t lost a step. … It was about eight months since I took a team rep. So just for that, to get that under my belt, I mean, I feel happy to be out here. I feel better than what I was before. I came back bigger, stronger, faster than I was. So I mean, I feel the arm is not an issue. My tricep(s) is not an issue no more. I’m saying that right now. Other than that, I just plan on finishing what I started.”
  • Garrett on his expectations for the coming season: I expect to get to the Super Bowl. That’s the expectation every year. I expect to run back Defensive Player of the Year. (Zac Jackson)

Ravens

Ravens WR Rashod Bateman believes that WR Zay Flowers is capable of posting spectacular numbers but said that isn’t how the team operates.

“What he’s doing in the league is beyond special to me because of how we play football, of how the Ravens play football,” Bateman said, via Around The NFL. “It’s not like we’re just targeting, targeting Zay, put him on this. We do what’s best for the team and how we play. Zay could have 1,300 yards, easily, if that was the goal. Derrick Henry can rush for 2,000 easy if that was the goal. It’s just never the goal. I wish people understood that.”

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