Roethlisberger Ed Oliver Jersey , coincidentally (or not) timed to land one night before Roethsliberger is due to face reporters for the first time this offseason, has landed. Among other things, Roethlisberger contends that he still considers a former teammate who has criticized Roethlisberger mercilessly in recent months to be a friend.Roethlisberger explained to Bob Pompeani of KDKA-TV that the quarterback has tried on multiple occasions to contact Antonio Brown.“Haven’t heard back,” Roethlisberger said. “I’m sure he’s getting busy with his season, and getting ready as I am with the guys we have here. I really am looking forward to reconnecting with him, talking. Because like I said he’s a good friend of mine. I still call him a good friend. I hope that we can reconnect and I hope that our friendship can continue to grow.”The friendship has done anything but grow in 2019; Brown has systematically obliterated it. And the tipping point apparently came when Roethlisberger called Brown out on a weekly radio show after Pittsburgh’s loss to the Broncos.“It’s a fine line to walk sometimes of giving information out, giving kind of some cool things for the fans to be a part of, and maybe saying too much,” Roethlisberger said of his in-season appearances on 93.7 The Fan. “And I know that I took some heat and deservedly so for some of the comments that I’ve made on that show, especially towards him. And I genuinely feel bad about that and I’m sorry. Did I go too far after that Denver game? Probably.”Roethlisberger arguably went a little too far in trying to explain away his past criticism of Brown, whom Roethlisberger said in late November should have “flattened” his route on a play that resulted in a game-deciding end-zone interception.“I can see where that comment was perceived to be negative towards A.B. but it wasn’t meant that way,” Roethlisberger said. “It was more — just like everything during the season, it’s a compliment to A.B. because he’s doubled every single play. . . . . It’s still so amazing, is that he was able to do it through all the adversity of double- and triple-teams. And so it was more meant that I should have gone to JuJu [Smith-Schuster] because he was single covered.”Roethlisberger also was asked about the personal impact of widespread criticism, provoked by his good friend Cody Ford Jersey , of the quarterback’s leadership skills.“They were hurtful,” Roethlisberger said of the critical remarks, “and it was hurtful to myself. It was hurtful to my family. I always want to get better. I always strive to be the best that I can be. And last year we weren’t good enough. We lost six games, we didn’t make the playoffs. So I need to, as a leader of that football team, because leadership is ultimately about winning football games, and I didn’t a good enough job of being a leader because we didn’t make the playoffs.”A little more leadership may be needed this year, from Roethlisberger and others. That “two face” tweet posted by Brown after excerpts from the Roethlisberger interview emerged on Monday afternoon was “liked” by Steelers safety Terrell Edmunds, who has since “un-liked” Brown’s tweet but also has “liked” tweets criticizing Edmunds for “liking” Brown’s tweet. JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP)Blake Bortles got a stark reminder Tuesday of how Jacksonville’s season ended three months ago.Bortles was in the quarterbacks meeting room when offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett flashed a picture of the Gillette Stadium scoreboard from Jan. 21, 2018.Jaguars 20, Patriots 17, with a little more than 5 minutes to play in the AFC championship game.”It’s kind of like, `Man, that sucks. I can’t believe we blew that Devin Singletary Jersey ,”’ Bortles said. ”That will probably always be in the back of our minds as we missed that opportunity to go play for a Super Bowl. But I think it just gives us that much more motivation to get there again and go win it.”The Jaguars began their offseason program this week still thinking about how close they came to upsetting New England and getting to the Super Bowl for the first time in franchise history.Jacksonville led 20-10 early in the fourth quarter before fading down the stretch.Coach Doug Marrone cautioned his team about focusing on the past or anything that might happen in the future. But players made it clear the 24-20 loss in New England still stings and will serve as a driving force over the next nine months.”The bar has been raised; the expectations are different,” Bortles said. ”To be able to go through the season we went through last year, the camp that we went through and kind of see everything that happened, I think guys are coming back this year with a totally different attitude and kind of a hunger to reach that final game and go win it.”Jacksonville has reason to be optimistic.The Jaguars return 12 of the top 14 players on a defense that ranked second in the NFL, added one of the league’s most coveted free agents in guard Andrew Norwell and kept their entire coaching staff intact.”You have to start back at ground zero and then build,” veteran defensive end Calais Campbell said. ”The reset button is something you have to hit regardless if you were terrible or if you were good. It doesn’t matter. Just got to start over from the beginning and earn the right to make it to be a successful team.”Even with so much carry-over from 2017, Marrone plans to take a similar approach during the offseason. He wants his players to get in the best shape possible now, which should help them get through a grueling training camp later.”I’m always one of those guys, `Hey, let’s be where our butt is,”’ Marrone said. ”In other words, let’s be in this moment right now. I think that when you’re grabbing toward this future and you looking beyond you’re going to miss all the small things that you need to build a foundation.”Last year, we kind of wrapped it in a box and put it there. There are lessons that we’ve learned from it. We appreciate that. We appreciate the season. We appreciate what’s gone on, but now we’re sitting here at 0-0.”Jacksonville (10-6) won the AFC South for the first time in franchise history last season, but top executive Tom Coughlin and general manager Dave Caldwell didn’t treat the roster like it was even close to being set.They let receiver Allen Robinson Dawson Knox Jersey , cornerback Aaron Colvin, guard Patrick Omameh and backup quarterback Chad Henne walk in free agency. They cut tight end Marcedes Lewis, receiver Allen Hurns and running back Chris Ivory. And they brought in five free agents, including new starters Norwell, receiver Donte Moncrief and tight end Austin Seferian-Jenkins.Now, the Jags are essentially starting over – even with that loss to the Patriots still lingering.”There’s one team out there that’s defending champs. That’s the Philadelphia Eagles,” Marrone said. ”Before we even get to division, playoffs, whatever it may be, first game of the year, whatever it may be, we’ve got to take all these steps, OK, before we get there. If we put our sights on those right now we’re going to miss something here in the beginning building this foundation.”—