Bengals
Bengals WR Ja’Marr Chase referred to incoming veteran QB Joe Flacco as an “all-time great” who can still play and will give the team a chance to remain competitive as they face off against the Packers.
“I appreciate the organization trying to make this work. So we’ve got to make it work,” Chase said, via the team’s website. “They just see that we’ve got a chance. Defense is doing a good enough job to help us out. Ultimately, we’ve got to have plays in space. That’s what they’ve seen. That’s what they wanted to keep going. They’ve just given us an opportunity to make more of those plays happen.”
Bengals
Cincinnati added QB Joe Flacco from the Browns to help salvage the season until QB Joe Burrow can potentially return. Bengals C Ted Karras was impressed with how smooth the transition was to Flacco in his first practice with the team.
“Until he really gets a good feel for what we’re doing, which I think he already has, I’m going to be a little more demonstrative,” Karras said, via Geoff Hobson of the team’s website. “But I think it’s business as usual. I thought we had a smooth, clean day.”
Bengals RB Chase Brown noted Flacco’s quick ability to pick up the play calls from HC Zac Taylor.
“Zac would read a play to him, and he was able to recite it perfectly. Almost verbatim. I didn’t hear any mistakes,” Brown said. “It was pretty impressive with that. You could go tell him a play right now, and he could recite it for you. Your own play. I was impressed by that.”
Steelers
Steelers DB DeShon Elliott said his return to the field was great and he looks to continue to provide a boost to the defense.
“It felt amazing,” Elliott said, via ESPN. “I’ve been injured a lot in my career, so having those trials and tribulations, man, all those ups and downs — really when my knee got hurt, I thought I was out for the season. So being able to come back and play with my guys, knowing that my energy is contagious, knowing that my aggressions are contagious. … Cameron [Heyward], T.J. [Watt], PQ [Patrick Queen], I know we going to hunt, so hey, I’m excited, more turnovers to go this year.”
Elliott said he wants to build upon the strong first half the team had against the Vikings.
“Our defense is getting better,” Elliott said. “We can’t have those mental busts at the end. They scored two touchdowns in the second half. We held ’em to six [points] in the first half. We got to stay that and keep that, so we can be one of the best defenses in the league. We’re opportunistic, obviously, but we got to stop being a bend-and-don’t break defense. We got to get more third down stops to get off the field, but at the end of the day, we got a dub.”
Steelers HC Mike Tomlin said that Elliott’s presence helped improve the unit’s run defense.
“You’d be remiss if you didn’t talk about the presence of DeShon Elliot being a major component,” Tomlin said. “I thought his presence was significant in that game last week being a down safety, a guy that plays in and around the line of scrimmage.“
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