Browns

Browns OC Tommy Rees, who was handed over play-calling duties, said he’ll put a different spin on the offense while maintaining their core principles.

“There’s a lot of areas we need to improve,” Rees said, via PFT. “The passing game, like we’ve said from the jump, takes all 11. We want to stress defenses in probably some ways we haven’t been able to or not able to connect on. Feature the guys we can lean on and make our quarterback feel comfortable. The bye weeks are always great. We needed the reset to kind of look at things, make sure we’re doing the best things for our players, the best things for our quarterbacks and we think we have a good plan going forward.”

• Browns OL coach Mike Bloomgren said they’ve identified what works well with RB Quinshon Judkins, and they plan to “lean into those” coming out of their Week 9 bye, via Scott Petrak. 
• Judkins said he didn’t know the seriousness of his shoulder injury after leaving Week 8’s game against the Patriots, but he is feeling “ready to go,” per Petrak. 
• Browns DL coach Jacques Cesaire highly praised rookie DL Mason Graham: “I love the way Mason Graham works daily. He’s winning, he’s getting pressures. He doesn’t care about stats. He’s going to have a great career.” (Petrak)
• Cleveland ruled out WR Isaiah Bond (foot) from Week 10 and listed LB Carson Schwesinger (ankle), TE Harold Fannin Jr. (hamstring), WR Cedric Tillman (hamstring), and OT Cornelius Lucas as questionable.
• Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports says that people within the organization were unsure of exactly what CSO Paul DePodesta did for the team. He is now leaving to join the Colorado Rockies of Major League Baseball.

Steelers

Steelers WR D.K. Metcalf said the team’s wide receiver room is unselfish and isn’t concerned if he doesn’t get a plethora of targets.

“Ya’ll might get frustrated with that sh–, but we don’t,” Metcalf said, via Steelers Wire. “We’re just trying to win. … You gotta respect the guys who are getting targets. From the moment that I’ve gotten here, everybody’s worked their butts off. So, everybody rightfully deserves a shot at the ball.”

• Jonathan Jones reports that the Steelers are hopeful veteran QB Aaron Rodgers will not retire after one season with the team.

Steelers 

The Steelers are coming off a big 27-20 win over the Colts in Week 9. Pittsburgh CB Joey Porter Jr. thinks they are proving to be capable of being Super Bowl contenders. 

“We know what we’re trying to do. We know we’re capable of winning a chip [championship],”  Porter Jr. said, via Albert Breer of SI. “One-play focused, one-game focused, we’re really just trying to go back to that Steel Curtain defense, that gritty defense. We are going to take one step at a time, and we put it on tape today.”

Porter praised their defensive backs for making things difficult for Daniel Jones. 

“We made it tough for them, and we let our D-line eat,” Porter said. “The boys got back there and made it hard for Daniel to execute. He had to get the ball out quick. … We know they are a good team and move a lot to confuse the defense. We had that already in mind and it wasn’t really hard when they started doing that—we were ready for it.”

• Per Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Steelers had various talks with other teams leading up to the deadline, including talks to trade one of their players for draft picks. 

The post AFC Notes: D.K. Metcalf, Joey Porter Jr., Tommy Rees, Browns, Steelers appeared first on NFLTradeRumors.co.