AFC Notes: Joe Burrow, John Harbaugh, Bengals, Ravens

Bengals

After an injury-filled season, Bengals QB Joe Burrow is healthy and looking for a more consistent 2024 season. He discussed how the entire team can keep focus on every play to make them more consistent within each game.

“The goal is to stay as close to the same as you can. It’s why we promoted Pitch, it’s why we promoted Brad,” Burrow said, via Geoff Hobson of the team’s website. “We tried to keep most of the things in-house and then we had a couple of additions that we think will bring a new element to our process. I think that’s always a good thing, too. I’m excited to see what that working relationship is going to be like. Whoever is here you’re going to self-scout and tweak what you did from last year to be a better offense.”

“We have to be more consistent than we were last year. Part of that was the injury to me. I think we just need to take that next step as an offense. Be more consistent series-to-series. We’ve been pretty good game-to-game, but I think if we really want to be one of those top one to three offenses in the league, we have to be more consistent.”

Bengals

The Bengals sent RB Joe Mixon to Houston this offseason and veteran WR Tyler Boyd remains a free agent. Cincinnati QB Joe Burrow talked about their mindset heading into workouts with some new pieces on offense.

“We know we have the right people in place to reach our goals,” Burrow said, via Geoff Hobson of the team’s website. “It’s just about putting all those pieces together and finding our roles to optimize what we can do.”

Ravens

Ravens HC John Harbaugh was a proponent of banning the hip-drop tackle, pointing out it makes serious injuries 25 times more likely. 

“When you drop down on the back of his legs, it’s a mass … and it’s 25 times more likely to have a serious injury,” Harbaugh said, via Jamison Hensley of ESPN. “So, it’s really a bad play, and it needed to be out. And guys are going to tackle just fine without the quote-unquote hip-drop tackle, because they tackled just fine without it for 100 years of football before that, when you never saw it, really.”

Harbaugh said the technique was discovered in rugby and made its way to the NFL. 

“When did you ever hear about the hip-drop tackle until like two years ago, three years ago, right?” Harbaugh said. “That’s because it was discovered, probably, in rugby and started being executed as a standalone technique. It’s a three-part movement, [and] you’ve got to execute that play. You’ve got to be close enough to that ball carrier to actually get him around the hips, pull him close to yourself, swing your hips through and drop on the back of his legs. If you’re that close, wrap him up, tackle him and take him to the ground, like Ray Lewis used to do and everybody did for 100 years before that.”