AFC Notes: Lamar Jackson, Shedeur Sanders, T.J. Watt, Browns, Ravens, Steelers

Browns

Browns QB Shedeur Sanders is focused on getting the little things right and keeping a no-excuses mentality to polish his skills before the arrival of his first NFL season.

โ€œMy goal is to be the best teammate and to be as polished as I can be,โ€ Sanders said, via Pro Football Talk. โ€œSo, in every aspect, I view things as I got time. I got time to be able to grow and mature, you know, 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, you know, a plus. Like, I got time to actually be able to really have a great understanding. And whenever, you know, itโ€™s time for me to play, then itโ€™s time for me to play. But Iโ€™m not looking too far in the future about all that. Iโ€™m looking about every day in practice because I had some misses out there today that, you know, we got to go in there and correct, reads getting in and out drops a little bit faster from under center. So thatโ€™s the main thing. Iโ€™m focused on the small things, and over time, the big things will happen.โ€

Ravens

Ravens QB Lamar Jackson has only attended one offseason session for the team thus far, but HC John Harbaugh doesn’t seem concerned.

โ€œIโ€™m not taking any position on it, judging it,โ€ Harbaugh said, via Gianna Han of the Baltimore Banner. “The day he was out here, he played great. I could see he was in great shape. Threw the ball great, made the reads, knew the offense. I thought he was fantastic. When he comes back and practices, when that happens I expect him to play at that level. Thatโ€™s what you measure. Iโ€™m not measuring the attendance. Itโ€™s a voluntary camp. I love being out here, I think all the players do. When Lamarโ€™s out here, I promise you he loves being out here. Heโ€™s my guy. I love him.โ€

Steelers

Appearing on the Pat McAfee show, former NFL DL J.J. Watt commented on the contract situation involving his brother, Steelers LB T.J. Watt.

โ€œI have a lot of information on that subject,โ€ J.J. Watt said, via Pro Football Talk. โ€œI just โ€” thatโ€™s not my subject. Ownership and front offices obviously treat this like a business, but they do not like it when the players flip the script on them and treat it like a business back.โ€

โ€œTaking care of your guys earlier does a few things for you,โ€ J.J. added. โ€œNumber one, it gets them locked in at a lower price, in the long run. I mean, you look at what prices are doing every single year, and you get them locked in at a lower price. Number two, youโ€™re keeping them happy, because even now, letโ€™s say, look at Trey Hendrickson‘s situation โ€” letโ€™s say they pay him now. Now thereโ€™s all this resentment, thereโ€™s all this animosity, and, yeah, 40 million dollars or whatever it is cures a whole lot of that, and heโ€™s gonna act like everything is great and everything is wonderful. But you just went through a whole bunch of time where there was some disrespect, where there were some hurt feelings, and now youโ€™re gonna go back into a building and act like everythingโ€™s OK. If you take care of things early, especially when players want to take care of things earlier and say that theyโ€™ll take less money to take care of things earlier because it sets themselves up long term financially, do that. Because if you donโ€™t do that, thatโ€™s when the problems start to arise, and now all of a sudden you say, โ€˜Hey, we have to kick this can down the road because of the way everythingโ€™s working out.โ€™ You kick the can down the road, and the can gets a whole lot bigger. And then the player says, โ€˜Well, the canโ€™s a lot bigger now. Fill it up.โ€™ And you donโ€™t want to fill it up because you say, โ€˜Well, we have to pay all these other guys, we have to take care of these other things.โ€™ Itโ€™s like, โ€˜Well, I wanted to fill the can way back down here when it was a little soup can. Now we got ourselves a garbage pail.โ€

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