AFC Notes: Trey Hendrickson, Ronnie Stanley, Bengals, Browns, Ravens

Bengals

According to ESPN insider Adam Schefter, the Bengals haven’t returned DE Trey Hendrickson‘s phone calls.

“[Trey Hendrickson is] frustrated because the team has not only not returned his phone calls since the draft,” Schefter said, via Bengals Wire. “But [the Bengals] obviously had comments to make at the owners meetings.”

Browns

Browns third-round QB Dillon Gabriel is getting acclimated in Cleveland and continues to say that he welcomes the competition he faces this offseason.

“I think this is definitely a place where I thrive,” Gabriel said, via the team website. “Being able to get back in the building and I think within six months of the draft process, you are kind of team-less and a lot of time for you to build and grow individually. But this is where I thrive, being in a team environment. That’s how you play the game of football.”

“With competition, how I approach it, I’m trying to beat myself yesterday,” Gabriel added. “Just any chance I can be 1 percent better than that. That’s how I look at it. And naturally, you play the quarterback position, only one guy can play. So, there’s naturally going to have competition at all levels. And that’s why we’re in this game, we love it. And if you’re a competitor, you love it and you run towards it. So that’s what I do. I got to continue to dominate the moment and have great practices. Every day I approach is like, ‘I’m going to go get that rep,’ and I live like that.”

Ravens

Ravens LT Ronnie Stanley commented on having a second ankle surgery following his contract extension and essentially missing the past two seasons.

“I’ll never forget that feeling of everybody looking at me like: ‘Damn, Ronnie, you got the bag and now you’re getting surgery, huh? Do you really need it? Can’t you just play through this?’ The narrative was basically: This dude can’t fight through the pain. He doesn’t love the game like that. He just wants to get the money and run,” Stanley said, via the team website. “But I got the surgery, and when it was over the doctors let me know … my deltoid was indeed completely torn. I wouldn’t have been able to play with that injury no matter what I tried to do. There was no amount of toughness that was going to change that and allow me to play effectively, no matter how tough I was. It had nothing to do with not being able to ‘fight through the pain.'”

Stanley admitted that he had anxiety following his initial return from injury and was hesitating while overthinking and trying to avoid mistakes.

“I was playing the game with the anxiety of getting the right results, and without any joy in the process of getting those results. I was playing out of fear of not messing up, not with the love that comes from attempting to be great,” Stanley added. “Back before those injuries, I was coming off a season where I felt I was one of the top players at my position, and yet every time I laced up my cleats after that, all I was thinking about was the mistakes I might make. I was tight, hesitant, and second-guessing myself. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned in my 20-plus years of playing football, it’s that you can’t play in fear. You’ll play at half the speed and with twice the amount of thoughts. The best way to play is with a belief and confidence in yourself and what you’re doing, wanting it to feel subconscious. Or, as Bob Rotella puts it in his book How Champions Think … a line that’s really stuck with me over the years: ‘Get out of your own way.'”