AFC Notes: C.J. Stroud, Josh Downs, Colts, Texans, Titans

Colts

Colts third-round WR Josh Downs told reporters he still hasn’t fully healed from a knee injury he suffered during spring workouts. He’s been playing through the injury and has been good for at least one big play per week, but it’s still clearly hampering him. 

“It’s not anything alarming that I’m going through,” Downs told Nate Atkins of the Indianapolis Star.  “Just me having different nicks and knacks in my knee this season was going to happen because of that injury, but it is what it is.”

Texans

Texans QB C.J. Stroud spent time with QB Tom Brady and spoke about how meeting Brady helped his understanding of the NFL before even making his debut.

“Personally, it was like a cheat code to not only be an NFL quarterback, but to be a professional person and a real man in this game of football,” Stroud said on SiriusXM NF Let’s Go! “Right after I went and I took notes from it, I had the guys who did the whole video for us, and I re-watched the whole thing and wrote notes and just really tried to just make it my own, try to really adapt it into a routine for me. That was one thing that I know that Tom was preaching was routine and being a great teammate and things like that. So for me, that was what I wanted to do.”

“That meeting really instilled a lot of confidence in me and told me, man, like, I can do this,” Stroud added. “Seeing Tom, and him being so personable and so relatable, and you would think like he’s a seven-time NFL champion, a MVP, this G.O.A.T. status quarterback, but he was really vulnerable in that moment [and] he really made it easy for us to understand what he was talking about.”

Titans

• Titans HC Mike Vrabel says WR Treylon Burks is still in concussion protocol and will not practice. (Jim Wyatt)
• Titans CB Sean Murphy-Bunting revealed that he underwent thumb surgery, per Paul Kuharsky.