{"id":911791,"date":"2026-06-06T19:30:33","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T19:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/911791\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T19:30:33","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T19:30:33","slug":"afc-notes-joe-burrow-jim-schwartz-bengals-browns-ravens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/911791\/","title":{"rendered":"AFC Notes: Joe Burrow, Jim Schwartz, Bengals, Browns, Ravens"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThey\u2019re going to keep getting great players to come play for the Bengals, and when they do that, then it\u2019s my job and Zac \u2018s job and the leaders of this team to bring the locker room together and then go execute on the field,\u201d Burrow\u00a0said,\u00a0via the team\u2019s official website<\/a>. \u201cWe have everything we need. We made a big trade for a big-time player. Signed a free agent top safety on the market, and other additions. We\u2019ll see how the rookies end up. \u2026 But first impressions, we\u2019ve got guys that care about the game, care about their job, and want to be great. When you have young guys like that and veterans like we do, it\u2019s a recipe for success.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burrow on DE Trey Hendrickson<\/a> signing with the Ravens: \u201cIt\u2019s not very surprising. I know Trey, I love Trey. I just know how he operates.\u201d (Bergman<\/a>)
\nBurrow on the team\u2019s young linebackers: \u201cWe have a lot of trust in the young linebackers that we\u2019re bringing back. Those guys have taken leadership roles this offseason. That\u2019s been exciting to see. We know they have the talent to do it.\u201d (Baby<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Former Browns DC Jim Schwartz made his first public comments since resigning from the team when they passed over him in favor of new HC Todd Monken. Schwartz feels he deserved the chance after his success with the team, but understands they wanted to go with an offensive-minded coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt sort of is what it was,\u201d Schwartz said, via Ryan Ripken<\/a>. \u201cWe had a lot of success on defense and the Browns made a change at head coach, and they passed over me with all the success that we had and the ability to develop players, our best players had their best years, all those different things. And that was a decision they made. They wanted to go with an offensive guy. They chose Todd. I\u2019m fine with that. They can make decisions that they want to make, but they can\u2019t expect me to stay on board for that. Anybody that\u2019s in any business, you get passed over for a promotion when you\u2019ve done a really, really good job in your job and you think you were in line for that promotion. It\u2019s time to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the Browns wanted Schwartz to stay on in the same role, he felt that wasn\u2019t a good idea for Monken or the locker room. He thought it could put the team in a tough situation, and it would be better for everyone if Monken picked his own guy to run the defense.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTodd deserved his own guy. A forced marriage isn\u2019t going to work in the NFL. Having command of the players and having command of the locker room, all those things are extremely important, and I didn\u2019t feel like I could do my job after getting passed over for the head coaching job. It sort of put me in a tough position. \u2018Hey, we want you to listen to this guy, but we didn\u2019t want to make him the head coach.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I made the decision to resign, and I have to sit out this year as a result. But I think anybody that\u2019s been in any business, when you\u2019ve done a good job, when you mention those numbers, we weren\u2019t one of the best defenses in three years, we were the best defense in three years. The decision they made, that\u2019s their decision, but to expect me to stay and for me to be on board with that, that\u2019s just a tough situation. It wouldn\u2019t have been good for me and it wouldn\u2019t have been good for Todd. It was best for him to get his own guy in there and to move forward with him as opposed to just having an arranged marriage and having me there and maybe having some players more loyal to me than him. It can just be a bad situation. 33 years in the NFL, I\u2019ve never been around that before. That all went into the decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ravens S Jaylinn Hawkins<\/a> embarks on his first season in Baltimore after reaching the Super Bowl with the Patriots. Hawkins said he\u2019s \u201cturning the page\u201d on his career in New England and is focused on the future with his new team.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to turn the page,\u201d Hawkins said, via Clifton Brown of the team\u2019s site.<\/a> \u201cI\u2019m in B-more now. That was with the Pats. Now I\u2019m with the Ravens. In order for me to fully embrace this journey, I\u2019ve got to turn the page, but I can use it as motivation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hawkins feels they could have a \u201cspecial\u201d defense in Baltimore.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we could be special,\u201d Hawkins said. \u201cI think we\u2019ve got something cooking. Everybody is talented in their own way. Everybody has different strengths. We all can get the ball. There\u2019s so much upside to it. Now it\u2019s just about feeding off each other, playing off each other, playing well together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hawkins also expressed belief in new HC Jesse Minter and thinks he fits well into his system.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cJust the way this culture is, the team the history, and what we have right now,\u201d Hawkins said. \u201cI believe in the guys we have on the team. I believe we can do something special. I also believe in Coach Minter. I look at his resume and what he did in LA, a good defensive-minded coach. I fit well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThey\u2019re going to keep getting great players to come play for the Bengals, and when they do that,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":689912,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2052],"tags":[184,117,2282,7,7895,10097,22881,1577,6,169,23813,1503],"class_list":["post-911791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-baltimore-ravens","tag-baltimore","tag-baltimore-ravens","tag-baltimoreravens","tag-football","tag-jaylinn-hawkins","tag-jesse-minter","tag-jim-schwartz","tag-joe-burrow","tag-nfl","tag-ravens","tag-todd-monken","tag-trey-hendrickson"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116704826078359894","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911791","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=911791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/689912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=911791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=911791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=911791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}