AFC Notes: Joe Flacco, Mike Green, Bengals, Browns, Ravens

Bengals

Bengals HC Zac Taylor confirmed that OL Dylan Fairchild will have an opportunity to start at left guard for the team next season.

“He’ll come in and compete to start at left guard right away,” Taylor said, via Bengals Wire. “We were crossing our fingers he would be there.”

• Bengals RB Zack Moss agreed to reduce his salary from $3.475 million to $1.7 million as part of a renegotiated contract. $375,000 of his salary is now guaranteed. (OTC)

Browns

Browns QB Kenny Pickett says he plans to be a starter, despite the team signing QB Joe Flacco and looking at quarterbacks in the draft.

“That’s the plan, man (to start),” Pickett said, via the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “I’m not going there to hang out. I want to go play. I’m excited, been working hard for it, taking it a day at a time.”

“I’ve heard nothing but great things about Joe,” Pickett added. “I’ve been watching him since I was 10 years old. Total respect for Joe, what he’s done, and I’m excited to get to work with him, too.”

• Flacco: “I don’t think there’s any expectation of exactly who’s going to be the starting quarterback.” (Cody Suek)
• Flacco signed a one-year, $4.25 million contract with the Browns that includes $3 million guaranteed and four void years for salary cap purposes. (OTC)
• Pro Football Talk details the insurance policy for injury regarding Browns QB Deshaun Watson. For an injury occurring between the start of the 2024 offseason program and the start of the 2025 offseason program, the contract allows for $58.176 million to be recovered by the Browns: $12.691 million in 2024 signing bonus; $1.21 million in 2024 base salary; and $44.274 million of $46 million in 2025 base salary.
• Because Watson suffered a torn Achilles in Week 7 of the 2024 season, they’d presumably get all of the $12.691 million from the 2024 signing bonus (which was more than $40 million), less than half of his $1.21 million 2024 base salary, and (if as expected he doesn’t play in 2025) $44.274 million for 2025, more than $55 million of the $230 million contract with $135 million of the $230 million deal yet to hit the cap.

Ravens

Ravens GM Eric DeCosta said the team evaluated sexual assault allegations against OLB Mike Green and came away confident that his name would be cleared.

“We understand the severity of what these allegations were, of course,” DeCosta said, via ESPN. “But doing our due diligence, we are comfortable with Mike. I think the best is yet to come with him, and I’m glad we got him. We got as much information as we could. We considered the facts, we considered the allegations. We considered what the reports actually were and what they actually weren’t, and we made the decision based off of that.”

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