AFC Notes: Deshaun Watson, Jacques Cesaire, Mike Green, Browns, Ravens

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Browns Browns QB Deshaun Watson enters the offseason program competing for the starting quarterback job after recovering from his torn Achilles. Cleveland HC Todd Monken talked about the standard Watson has for himself and the need to have a short memory after bad plays. “He puts a lot of pressure on himself,” Monken said, via Mary Kay Cabot. “So, when he’s not right or he makes a mistake, he’s great at owning it. But it’s okay, we’re human. We’re going to make mistakes. You’re not going to play flawless. Just go to the next play.” Browns QBs coach Mike Bajakian said it was clear that Watson studied their new offensive system under Monken before entering their offseason program. “It was obvious to us that before we had even got him on campus here that he had done a lot of work, of video work and things like that,” Bajakian said. “And that’s pretty cool. So in terms of his greatest growth, it’s been mastering the procedure at the line of scrimmage, the checks and the motions and the protections and all that other stuff. And granted, he’s got a very good foundation to translate it back to, but he’s made a huge jump from Day 1 to now.” Bajakian is eager to see how Watson and Shedeur Sanders respond in training camp when they have a full pass rush going against them. “It’s a little bit easier to make a faster evaluation when you have a defensive line that’s coming at you full speed, when you really have to react to the full-speed aspect of the game,” Bajakian said. “I don’t see it as a challenge. I see it as, ‘hey, I would think it should declare itself pretty quickly.’” Browns The Browns are preparing for life without star edge rusher Myles Garrett in 2026. Cleveland DL coach Jacques Cesaire still thinks they have “great pieces” for their defensive line and won’t be changing their approach. “Obviously you’re going to miss that as a coach, but we have great pieces … so I don’t see any letdown,” Cesaire said, via Scott Petrak of BrownsZone . “All these guys have played a lot of football. They understand the scheme, they understand what they have to do out there. Whether we have Myles or we don’t have Myles, we’re going to approach it the same way. We’re going to come out here, we’re going to attack, penetrate, disrupt, we’re going to rush, we’re going to close, we’re going to crush anything that comes in our way and we’re going to have fun doing it.” Cesaire said he’s keeping “a lot of energy” in their defensive line group and that the team responded well after Garrett’s surprising trade. “I like to keep a lot of energy in the room,” Cesaire said. “I like to keep the vibes high and obviously that day was a shock to those guys. It shocked everybody. However, they’re all professionals. They’re all leaders. They’re all men that love to work, love to play ball and they have fun out here. So the vibe, the energy, nothing dipped. They just came out here and said, ‘Hey, we’ve got to go to work. We’ve got to get ready for the season.” Cesair expressed confidence in their rushers and recently acquired EDGE Jared Verse . “I tell all my guys, they all know how to rush, all of them. That’s why they’re in the NFL,” Cesaire said. “My job is organizing their rush and telling them exactly when to use that rush. And so Jared, he does have a nice repertoire right now. We’re going to add a couple of little different wrinkles to it, but I love what he does best, which is just smash people, and that guy loves violence and he has a lot of speed and I know that w…