Good Morning, AFC North!

Bengals 2014 Schedule Is No Joke

When one takes into account offseason moves made by [opposing] teams, the schedule is suddenly not the easiest thing to digest.

Home opponents: Baltimore, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Jacksonville, Tennessee, Atlanta, Carolina, Denver

Road opponents: Baltimore, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Houston, Indianapolis, New Orleans, Tampa Bay, New England

Baltimore and Pittsburgh will always put up a strong fight. Cleveland is interesting because the offseason to date has been outstanding and they always play their in-state rivals tough.

Denver and Carolina will remain title contenders. Atlanta is a wild card that will be healthy and have a top-10 rookie on board.

The same thing applies to the road schedule.

The AFC North plays the NFC South and AFC South this season, and the Bengals will be playing a first place schedule for the first time since 2009.

 

 

 

Derek Carr says his Browns workout went exactly how he wanted

Carr said he wanted to do everything he could to convince those in attendance — including Browns General Manager Ray Farmer, coach Mike Pettine, offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan and quarterbacks coach Dowell Loggains — that he’s worthy of a first-round pick.

“Coach Shanahan runs the workout,” Carr said. “So we do their drills, and they really want to tire you out. When you’re doing the individual drills, they really try to tire you out, see how you’re feeling, really grind you a little bit. And then you go into throwing routes. You throw routes while you’re tired, like a football game. So after all that, you do some bootlegs and they want to see how you move on the run when you’re tired.

The Browns are using private workouts to evaluate this year’s class of QBs. Given comments made by Farmer, it doesn’t appear that he is confident that the top three prospects will become franchise quarterbacks; Carr may be the Browns’ pick at number 26.

 

 

 

The Ravens are hosting Eastern Illinois quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, Florida State wide receiver Kelvin Benjamin, Utah cornerback Keith McGill and Cal outside linebacker Khairi Fortt for official visits Tuesday.

Garappolo is known for his live arm, timing and mobility, evident in this highlight video, but lacks ideal size and arm strength at 6-foot-2, 226-pounds.

Benjamin is an imposing wide receiver at 6-foot-5, 235 pounds with a huge catch radius. He ran the 40-yard dash in 4.61 seconds at the NFL scouting combine, where he met with the Ravens. Benjamin is one of the biggest wide receivers to enter the NFL since Detroit Lions star Calvin Johnson. He caught 54 passes for 1,011 yards and 15 touchdowns as a sophomore last season.

Benjamin is an imposing receiver who has all of the physical tools, but he is still raw. The Ravens need to address the backup quarterback situation.

 

 

 

Safety Ryan Clark returns to Redskins

He was quickly welcomed by Robert Griffin III on Twitter, with Clark telling the franchise quarterback: “Let’s go win a lot of games & have some fun!”

Clark visited the Redskins earlier this month after he became a free agent following eight seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Clark played in Washington in 2004-05, but the Redskins opted not to re-sign him and instead paid big money to Adam Archuleta, who became one of the top free agent busts in franchise history.

The Steelers will address their secondary in the draft. They’ll likely select a CB with a high pick, and should consider drafting a safety, too.