Around the AFC North: Browns testing Denzel Ward early

The AFC North has some interesting things going on this week. The biggest is probably the Browns declaring their faith in the No. 4 overall selection in this year’s draft, but the funnest ones are the Ravens lowering their food prices and deciphering Le’Veon Bell’s latest tweet.

Let’s get to it!

Ravens hope lowering concession prices will make games more capable of being stomached

This is actually a great business model that more teams should take up. The Ravens are following the Falcons’ lead from and lowering their concession prices to a point where you don’t have check your bank account just to make sure you can afford a soda and a hot dog. The Falcons actually lowered their prices while making more money. And, this is an easy way to win over fans, which is why the Ravens are reportedly doing it.

The Ravens have not yet released the official prices at the time of writing, but one would expect they will follow a similar model to the Falcons considering how successful it was.

Only paying $2 for a hot dog sure will make watching Joe Flacco only throw 18 touchdowns in a season more bearable. $3 drinks sure will be refreshing in between chants for Lamar Jackson as well.

The Brown will start Denzel Ward as their No. 1 CB in Week 1 against the Steelers

The Browns are ready to put their money where there mouth is with Ward. The Browns chose him in the first round of the draft over the conscientious top defensive player Bradley Chubb, who many thought would create a perfect pass rushing duo for Cleveland. Instead the Browns opted for the top cornerback, and they will look for him to prove his abilities in Week 1 against the Steelers.

It is hard to say if the team will have him shadow Antonio Brown or not, but you have to imagine at the very least he will have to cover him at some point. Talk about a welcome to the NFL matchup. Of course Ward will have to get used to covering the best receivers in the league as he will have to cover Brown and A.J. Green twice a season for the foreseeable future. Luckily, he will get two easier weeks against whatever the Ravens are rolling out at receiver next season, though.

Ward will have an opportunity to really stick it to everyone who made fun or the Browns for picking him. Of course, if he gets picked apart then that just adds more fuel to the fire. Either way it will be fun to either make fun of Cleveland for putting Ward through this or Brown for getting shutdown by a rookie.

Trying to make sense of Le’Veon Bell’s latest tweet

Words can’t describe how happy I am to not have to deal with Bell being on my favorite team or having to cover his antics so seriously. Whether it is him demanding an insane contract for a running back or calling out the fans who support him, Bell seems to stay in the news for all the most frustrating reasons.

Of course Bell has been franchise tagged again this season, but both sides are trying to agree on a long-term deal and he has not signed the contract just yet. There hasn’t been much news on that front aside from the Steelers not drafting a running back too high in the draft this season. Then Bell tweeted this:

The only thing that is certain is 9/9/2018 is the date of the Steelers’ first game of the regular season, which comes against the Browns. After that, all we have left are questions. Does this mean the sides are close on a deal? Does he plan to hold out until Week 1 again? Is he actually retiring from football and instead dropping his latest song on that date? That last one is a long shot.

Really no one knows aside from Bell, his agent and the Steelers’ higher ups (maybbbbe) but we can all enjoy watching Steeler fans and the media come up with their own crazy theories.