{"id":711116,"date":"2026-01-28T09:08:23","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T09:08:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/711116\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T09:08:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T09:08:23","slug":"afc-notes-mike-mccarthy-deandre-hopkins-browns-ravens-steelers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/711116\/","title":{"rendered":"AFC Notes: Mike McCarthy, DeAndre Hopkins, Browns, Ravens, Steelers"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to Albert Breer<\/a>, there are three phases to the Browns\u2019 three-hour Zoom calls for head coaching candidates.
\nThere\u2019s a cognitive test, a personality test, and six questions relating to the role of the head coach, the candidate himself, and some questions that are specific to the franchise.<\/p>\n

Ravens WR DeAndre Hopkins<\/a> will turn 34 this year, and while he loves Baltimore, he is curious what type of offense the team will run next season and how he will fit into the picture.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reality of it, having a new offensive coordinator, being an older guy, I know football and I know how the business side works,\u201d Hopkins told Kay Adams<\/a>. \u201cI would love to come back, but not every offensive coordinator is wanting a veteran receiver on their team. Some guys have different dynamics of how they go about coaching. It\u2019s nothing personal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, Lamar and I had a great connection,\u201d Hopkins said. \u201cI think when he came to me I might have been Top 10 in productive receivers in the NFL when the ball came my way. I love Baltimore, and me being a competitor, I would have loved to be used more, even though we had Zay Flowers<\/a> and Rashod Bateman<\/a> and Isaiah Likely<\/a>, I\u2019m always gonna have that mindset that I want to be in the game. That will never change but it doesn\u2019t upset me that I wasn\u2019t, it doesn\u2019t make me a bad teammate, I\u2019m still cheering the guys on that are in the game, but I felt that I could have been used more. I love Baltimore, I think the city is great, the people and fans are amazing, organization is amazing, why wouldn\u2019t I want to come back? I would love to play with Lamar again. I don\u2019t know the last time I played with a quarterback two years in a row. It sucks, but it\u2019s part of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt Zenitz<\/a> reports that the Ravens are hiring Notre Dame\u2019s Mike Mickens as defensive pass game coordinator and DB coach.<\/p>\n

Steelers owner Art Rooney II said that the team still hasn\u2019t decided whether or not they\u2019ll bring back QB Aaron Rodgers<\/a> next season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know what Aaron\u2019s plans are right now, and that did not weigh heavily in the decision,\u201d Rooney said, via PFT<\/a>. \u201cWe\u2019ll see where Aaron is, and we\u2019ve left the door open, but obviously we all have to sit down and see if that makes sense. So that\u2019ll happen sometime in the next month or so. But the decision was made based on Mike being the coach we want, and it really had very little to do with whether Aaron is going to be back or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rooney added that new HC Mike McCarthy believes QB Will Howard has a ton of upside and is excited to work with him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe likes Will Howard, thinks Will has tremendous upside and is looking forward to working with him,\u201d Rooney said regarding McCarthy. \u201cObviously feels like Mason [Rudolph] can be a contributor. We\u2019ll have to sit down and discuss where Aaron is, if he decides to come back, and whether that all makes sense. I think Mike was very comfortable with the quarterback room and the possibilities with the quarterback room. In particular, the fact we have a young quarterback on the roster in whom he sees some upside.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rooney on the hire of McCarthy, who will call the team\u2019s plays on offense: \u201cHe is someone who has a longer track record than many of the other candidates, a winning track record. He\u2019s been a winner everywhere he\u2019s been. Probably just as important for our purposes, the quarterbacks that he\u2019s worked with have all been very successful. So he has a proven track record of developing top-flight quarterbacks. Those are the things that maybe stick out the most.\u201d (Pryor<\/a>)
\nMcCarthy on Howard: \u201cI\u2019m really excited about Will Howard. \u2026 I\u2019m anxious to work with him. It would be really great to have Aaron back, but Will and Mason, I\u2019m excited to get started with them.\u201d (Pryor<\/a>)
\nMcCarthy continued: \u201cAs we build a staff, we want to build off of what we have here. I don\u2019t believe in the throw the baby out with the bathwater method.\u201d (Pryor<\/a>)
\nMatt Zenitz<\/a> reports that DL coach Karl Dunbar will not be retained on McCarthy\u2019s staff, despite the team remaining in a 3-4 defense.<\/p>\n

Looking for the latest NFL Insider News & Rumors?<\/p>\n

Be sure to follow NFL Trade Rumors<\/a> on X.com<\/a>\u00a0and FACEBOOK<\/a>\u00a0for breaking NFL News and Rumors for all 32 teams!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"According to Albert Breer, there are three phases to the Browns\u2019 three-hour Zoom calls for head coaching candidates.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":711117,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2052],"tags":[1586,4393,184,117,2282,4695,7,30082,7866,94587,6,169,2183],"class_list":["post-711116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-baltimore-ravens","tag-aaron-rodgers","tag-art-rooney-ii","tag-baltimore","tag-baltimore-ravens","tag-baltimoreravens","tag-deandre-hopkins","tag-football","tag-karl-dunbar","tag-mike-mccarthy","tag-mike-mickens","tag-nfl","tag-ravens","tag-will-howard"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115971942273736567","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=711116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/711117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}