Colts
- The Athletic’s Zak Keefer writes Colts third-round S Nick Cross hasn’t looked out of place and the rookie is in line to start at strong safety, at least to open the season.
- Veteran S Rodney McLeod is still working his way back from injury and while Keefer doesn’t rule him out from winning the starting job, he might be more of an insurance policy if Cross hits a rough patch.
- Keefer adds second-year CB Isaiah Rodgers could make a legitimate push to unseat CB Brandon Facyson as the No. 2 corner, even though the latter is bigger and someone DC Gus Bradley brought with him from Las Vegas.
Jaguars
Jaguars OL Brandon Scherff is excited about the team’s running game and the offensive line’s ability to create running lanes.
“Everybody’s coachable and trying to do what Phil asks us to do,” Scherff said, via Jags Wire. “You see some of those plays we’re breaking out 20, 30, 40-yard runs. That’s what you want to see as an offensive line. It’s kind of cool, doing our job and then seeing Travis and Rock and Snoop hit those holes and there’s nobody around him. So that’s when we know that we’re doing our job and we just have to keep stacking them.”
Scherff added it’s nice to finally get the pads on and begin to create cohesion up front.
“It’s nice to put shoulder pads on and actually just be able to make it feel like football,” Scherff said. “With shells you kind of go full speed but you still have to take care of each other, but with pads you can get those real fits that [Offensive Line Coach] Phil [Rauscher] always talks about at meetings, so it’s nice to be able to get that fit get the real handles and shoulder pads and stuff, and I think we got a pretty good group, and we’re excited to just keep stacking them one day at a time.”
- The Jaguars worked out C Beau Benszchawel, later signing him to the roster. (Aaron Wilson)
Texans
Texans QB Davis Mills feels that he’s “developed a lot” going into his second year in the NFL and has “big momentum” going into 2022.
“I feel really good,” Mills said, via Deepi Sidhu of the team’s official site. “I think I’ve developed a lot since the end of last season. I think I felt the progression at the end of last year and then really taking it into the offseason, big momentum and stacking on it has allowed me to come out here and start playing really fast at the start of training camp and throughout OTAs. I’m excited to keep progressing.”
Mills describes that they “pinpointed” several areas that he wanted to improve and has focused on those areas.
“We kind of pinpointed and saw the shot chart or the throw chart from across the field, saw the different percentages, and I had a couple boxes where I needed to work on, so I focused on those type of throws, just making sure my feet and my body were in line to make all those throws,” Mills said. “The biggest thing is just coming out and being ahead of schedule in the playbook so you can come out and play fast.”
Mills said that they put extra time into building chemistry throughout the team heading into training camp.
“The first thing we did out there was trying to build chemistry heading into camp, making sure we were on the same page with what we had installed in the offense at that point,” Mills said. “Then the other part is kind of team bonding, hanging out with your guys. We had a good time up there. We spent it at the lake. He got us a little AirBnB on the lake, so we were able to go out and paddleboard and swim around with each other, and it was a lot of fun.”
Titans
Titans CB Kristian Fulton said second-round CB Roger McCreary is always in the right spot in coverage and feels he will tremendously benefit the team’s secondary.
“He’s sticky,” Fulton said, via the team’s official website. “He’s always in position. I feel like he’s a guy who is going to come in and help us tremendously. He’s getting his hands on the ball. We want to create more turnovers, and that’s the next step for him – turning those PBUs (pass break-ups) into interceptions. Not just for him, but for all of us.”
McCreary is taking a veteran approach, continuing to get better and not making the same mistakes twice.
“My mindset here was to learn from my mistakes, and to try and learn something every day and improve,” McCreary said. “The (competition) here is great. The skillset of each guy is different, and it’s great to go against all of them. This game is all about being physical…I just want to keep getting better.”
Titans HC Mike Vrabel also believes that McCreary takes coaching well and added that he’s always involved in the play and continues to battle in coverage.
“I know that he’s competitive,” Vrabel said. “Usually on-body, kind of a lot of the same things that we saw in the evaluation process, just continue to learn. He rarely makes the same mistakes twice. He’s a very coachable player and it’s good to see him disrupt the football.”
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