Bengals
Bengals fourth-round LB Barrett Carter is wearing the green dot as their defense’s signal caller despite being a rookie. Carter is grateful to be viewed as a leader.
“I love being the new kid on the block, and that people don’t see me as a 23-year-old rookie. They see me as a leader,” Carter said, via Geoff Hobson of the team’s site. “I’m just trying to step into that role and be what this team needs. I don’t take it lightly. For me, it’s just about going back to work, going back to the drawing board, trying to be the best leader, and best player, best man this team needs to get some Ws. It’s a blessing.”
Bengals assistant GM Trey Brown said they noticed Barrett’s leadership abilities during his college career at Clemson.
“He was the quarterback of their defense, and it translates well to what we ask our MIKE linebacker to do,” Brown said. “In terms of being a leader, understanding the defense, making guys around him better. Traits we saw coming out of Clemson, and he’s doing a nice job of transitioning that into our defense. It’s a difficult task for a rookie to come in and contribute right away like that. It’s how hard they work, how hard they prepare, how hard they study. So far, so good on that front.”
Cincinnati has allowed the league’s most points with 300. Barrett feels their mistakes are still fixable, and they have the players to turn things around.
“All the mistakes are correctable. It’s not something where we’re lacking anything in this building,” Carter says. “We have everything and everybody that we need right here. It’s just up to us to go do it. All the mistakes have been self-inflicted. You turn on the tape, it’s all self-inflicted. All correctable. Nothing to lose our heads over. It’s a long season.”
Aaron Rodgers
Steelers QB Aaron Rodgers said his wrist is feeling better and he’s aiming to get back to practice on Thursday.
“It feels better than it did Sunday, that’s for sure,” Rodgers said, via ESPN. “Was thankful to get today to work with [head athletic trainer Gabe Amponsah] and just focus on rehab for today. Trying to get back on the field tomorrow and see what I can do.”
Rodgers said the team is still working to find a functional brace that can help him take snaps under center.
“I would say it’d be more difficult to take a snap under center than to catch one in the gun,” he said. “And there’s been times in my career where we have adjusted and gone to some pistol sets if we need to still keep the spacing on the run distribution between the halfback and the quarterback, but the goal would be to take snaps from under center.”
Rodgers talked about how beneficial QB Mason Rudolph has been to him and said he’s one of the league’s better backup quarterbacks.
“He’s a great backup,” Rodgers said of Rudolph. “He’s super helpful during the week. He’s a professional. He is ready to play. He’s a gamer, and watching the locker room last week, I was super fired up watching him go up and down the field and those couple drives he had. I’m thankful for the way he played, the way he prepares. He’s a lot more type A, I would say, than I am with the preparation. He’s wound a little tight, but it makes it for a good backup of quarterback because he’s so in tune to the details, and I just love being around him.”
Steelers
- Steelers CB Cory Trice will miss the rest of the season with his knee injury after his designation window expired. Pittsburgh DC Teryl Austin said it was difficult to see Trice suffer a setback: “Sometimes, there’s a lot of guys who are really capable and talented in this league that don’t make it in this league because of injuries…he’s already back to work plotting his next comeback.” (Nick Farabaugh)
The post AFC Notes: Aaron Rodgers, Bengals, Steelers appeared first on NFLTradeRumors.co.