{"id":123667,"date":"2026-01-19T12:28:27","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T12:28:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/123667\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T12:28:27","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T12:28:27","slug":"afc-notes-orlando-brown-art-rooney-mike-tomlin-bengals-steelers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/123667\/","title":{"rendered":"AFC Notes: Orlando Brown, Art Rooney, Mike Tomlin, Bengals, Steelers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paul Dehner Jr. of The Athletic<\/a> notes that the Bengals\u2019 potential veteran salary cap cut candidates are not as clear as they have been in past seasons.
\nDehner lists LT Orlando Brown<\/a> Jr. as a potential candidate, which could save the team $14 million; yet, he doesn\u2019t think Brown Jr. will be cut and that the Bengals will instead draft a tackle with their first three picks to act as a backup for Brown.\u00a0
\nOther candidates mentioned by Dehner include defensive tackles T.J. Slaton and B.J. Hill<\/a>, OL Cody Ford<\/a>, and LB Oren Burks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Texans were the last team to face the Steelers under former HC Mike Tomlin in the AFC Wild Card Round. Houston HC DeMeco Ryans<\/a> reflected on Tomlin\u2019s decision to leave Pittsburgh, saying he\u2019s glad the coach was able to walk away on his own terms.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see a guy who\u2019s had a ton of success and done it at the highest level for 19 seasons not to have a losing record,\u201d Ryans said, via NFL.com<\/a>. \u201cPart of me is happy that he was able to step away on his own terms. It\u2019s a tough job, it\u2019s one of the toughest jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ryans added that he respects Tomlin more than any coach in the NFL and thinks he always did things \u201cthe right way.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody has all the answers, but no one truly knows all the work, all the sacrifice that goes in, all of the sleepless nights, all of the long hours you put in, all of the time away from family. It\u2019s a lot that goes into it and everybody just jumps on, \u2018This guy should be fired. He should be fired. Get him out, get him out,’\u201d Ryans said. \u201cI think the Steelers were the beneficiary of having a really great coach for 19 years and you see that sustained success when you\u2019re able to stick with a guy, you truly believe in a guy that\u2019s a great leader of an organization. He\u2019s done it at a high level, won the Super Bowl, done it with the utmost class and respect. There\u2019s not another coach that I respect more than Mike Tomlin. He\u2019s always done it the right way. I\u2019m thankful that he was able to step down on his terms.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steelers owner Art Rooney said the team wouldn\u2019t waste a year rebuilding and said the plan is to continue to compete in 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to say, \u2018Well, we\u2019re going to take a couple of years to figure this out and then we\u2019ll try to compete,\u2019\u201d Rooney said, via ESPN<\/a>. \u201cI think you try every year. Some years you have the horses to really get there. Some years you don\u2019t, but you try every year, in my view.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rooney acknowledged that the team is frustrated with the lack of postseason success but plans on being back in the playoffs next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a winning era,\u201d he said. \u201cAlways in contention. So I think when you start with that, you have the opportunity to take the next step. I can\u2019t explain kind of the more recent history there. It\u2019s hard to explain given the overall track record. Frustrating for all of us, mostly for Mike, but all in all, I\u2019ll take being in contention every year and having a shot at it.\u201c<\/p>\n

Looking for the latest NFL Insider News & Rumors?<\/p>\n

Be sure to follow NFL Trade Rumors<\/a> on X.com<\/a>\u00a0and FACEBOOK<\/a>\u00a0for breaking NFL News and Rumors for all 32 teams!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paul Dehner Jr. of The Athletic notes that the Bengals\u2019 potential veteran salary cap cut candidates are not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123668,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[61405,61406,61407,27879,59263,61408,139,45457,141,140,61409],"class_list":{"0":"post-123667","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-art-rooney","9":"tag-b-j-hill","10":"tag-cody-ford","11":"tag-demeco-ryans","12":"tag-mike-tomlin","13":"tag-oren-burks","14":"tag-orlando","15":"tag-orlando-brown","16":"tag-orlando-headlines","17":"tag-orlando-news","18":"tag-t-j-slaton"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}