AFC North Notes: Browns, Steelers, Ravens

Odell Beckham Jr. will be good to go when the Browns convene for training camp. Kevin Stefanski confirmed the three-time Pro Bowl wideout has 100% recovered from the core muscle surgery he underwent earlier this offseason, Mary Kay Cabot of cleveland.com notes. Beckham battled this problem for much of last season, often not being able to practice until Fridays, while also navigating a hip injury. While the star receiver suited up for 16 games — after failing to do so in three of his five Giants seasons — OBJ did not develop much of a rapport with Baker Mayfield. In Year 2 with the Browns, Beckham attended the team’s virtual offseason meetings. He skipped much of Cleveland’s onsite OTAs last year.

Jarvis Landry also underwent winter surgery — a hip procedure — and is behind Beckham in recovery. Stefanski expects his other Pro Bowl wideout to be healthy at some point in August. So it appears Landry will miss some time in camp, and Stefanski said he would be cautious with Beckham as well. Moving away from Cleveland, here is the latest from the AFC North:

• Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin will begin training camp with right tackle Matt Feiler at left guard (Twitter link via Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). The Steelers need a new left guard after Ramon Foster‘s retirement. However, a Feiler position switch would create a hole at right tackle — where he started 16 games last season. The Steelers signed Stefen Wisniewski as a possible Foster replacement, and Dulac does not expect Feiler to ultimately make the move to guard. Should Feiler be a genuine option at left guard, third-year tackle Chukwuma Okorafor and fourth-year blocker Zach Banner would compete for the Steelers’ right tackle gig.
• Both James Conner and JuJu Smith-Schuster are in contract years. While nothing has transpired on the Conner extension front, Dulac expects the Steelers to extend Smith-Schuster and avoid the franchise tag to do so. The Steelers have displayed an excellent ability to identify receiver talents for many years and have often let starters walk in free agency (Plaxico Burress, Emmanuel Sanders, Mike Wallace) or traded them (Santonio Holmes, Martavis Bryant). But the team does not have a veteran contract in its current receiver stable, leaving the door open for JuJu to get paid.
• The Ravens have several standouts either in contract years (Matt Judon, Ronnie Stanley), extension-eligible now (Marlon Humphrey) or set to become free to negotiate in 2021 (Lamar Jackson, Mark Andrews). John Harbaugh is optimistic the team will be able to keep some key players, even as the threat of a reduced 2021 salary cap looms. “We’ll keep as many guys as we can,” Harbaugh said, via The Athletic’s Jeff Zrebiec (subscription required). “I’m very optimistic about the fact that we have a good cap situation going forward. We have not been in good cap shape for the last six years or so. Really, seven years. Every year, we’ve been behind the eight ball with the cap. That’s just the way it was. This year was a little better, and next year will be a lot better.”