Broncos
Bo Nix was a revelation in his first year as the Broncos’ quarterback. Denver OT Garett Bolles said he is “grateful” to be protecting one of the game’s best young players.
“Bo’s a tremendous football player,” Bolles said, via NFL.com. “I’m so grateful I get to protect him and being his blindside protector, giving him all the time in the world. He’s a freak of nature. You look at the numbers that he put up last year, between him and [Jayden] Daniels, those were the two young quarterbacks in the league that’s gonna be very successful, and I have one of them behind me. His demeanor, his composure, his work ethic, just always wanting to get better, his arm talent and just the way he sees it, he has swag, man, he really does.”
Bolles said Nix’s ascendence to become a leader “spoke to us” in the locker room.
“You would think a rookie like that would come in and it would be hard for him to adjust to the NFL life,” Bolles said. “I think it just pays dividends to all the snaps that he had in college and the coaching staffs that he had there with Auburn and Oregon, and then coming to Denver and embracing his role and being the leader that he is, to lead our team down the field to score points, it spoke to us. We scored a lot of points last year and we’re ready to build off of what we did and continue to get better each and every day.”
Ravens
Ravens WR Rashod Bateman appeared on NFL Network to speak about remaining with Baltimore, as well as the team’s recent additions of DeAndre Hopkins and Jaire Alexander.
“That’s always been my mindset. It never really changed,” Bateman told NFL Network Insiders Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero. “No matter what I went through, I was always praying and hoping that it would work out here. There’s a lot of love and respect that comes with a team that drafted you and I wanted to flip that narrative of receivers here and I definitely think we’re on the right track of doing that. Not really looking for nobody else’s validation but it feels good, somewhat, to be in the midst now headed down that right track.”
“You could just definitely tell that he’s been in the game a while and done a lot of great things,” Bateman said of Hopkins. “A lot of people respect what he’s done and what he brings to the table. But as far as right now, he’s been a very good veteran for us, giving all of us advice — not even just myself — he’s been very vocal about that. All of us are much younger so [our] ears are open and we’re taking all the advice we can get from him. He’s done great things, so hopefully we can take that, add it to our game, add it to our personalities to go help this team. He’s been good for us and I know he’s going to be big for us this season.”
“In practice, it’s definitely going to be a battle,” Bateman said of Alexander. “It’s always a battle — this defense here is tough and adding Jaire to the group is definitely going to make us better. Going out, putting Jaire in the middle of our defense with the guys that we got now I think is going to be fun to see. It’s going to be some Ravens football.”
Steelers
Steelers QB Aaron Rodgers isn’t concerned about OC Arthur Smith‘s reputation of having a rigid offense that didn’t allow for adjustments at the line of scrimmage and knows that he’ll be allowed to call audibles if the defense gives him a certain look.
“I don’t understand that last term, ‘take over when I see fit,’” Rodgers said, responding to the question, via ESPN. “I’ve called some two minutes over the years. But the idea that somehow I need to, or have spent most of my career playing outside of an offensive system, is just not correct. I’m going to learn the offense, and Arthur and I are going to talk a bunch this summer. If there’s things that I like that I’d like to see in the offense, Arthur, I’m sure, is going to put it in. He knows how to call a game. I know how to get us in the right spot based on what’s called. There’s two or three plays called in the huddle sometimes. My job is to get us in the right play.”
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