AFC Notes: Colts, Jaguars, Texans

Colts

Both the Bills and the Colts are chasing the Chiefs in the AFC and saw how the Buccaneers were able to dismantle them in the Super Bowl. So both made major investments with their first two picks this year in their edge rushers — with the Colts taking Kwity Paye and Dayo Odeyingbo and the Bills selecting Gregory Rousseau and Carlos Basham. Indianapolis had the benefit of picking higher but at least one executive thought they did much better than Buffalo. 

“Kwity Paye and Dayo are significantly better than Rousseau and ‘Boogie’ Basham,” an exec said via the Athletic’s Mike Sando. “Rousseau is developmental. Long, lean defensive end who is not particularly physical or violent. I would rather have the Indy guys because they present more of a physical play style.”

Jaguars

• ESPN’s Jeff Darlington says there are some coaches on the Jaguars’ staff who are opposed to signing TE Tim Tebow and are in “serious disagreement” with HC Urban Meyer‘s decision to sign him.  
• NFL Media’s James Palmer confirms some in the Jaguars’ organization are wary over signing Tebow, including what Palmer describes as the “circus” of media attention that seems to follow Tebow.

Texans

Texans GM Nick Caserio points out that his staff is at square one with quarterbacks Davis Mills, Tyrod Taylor and Ryan Finley.

“We’re all at the same point, essentially,” Caserio said via Pro Football Talk. “We’re early in the offseason program. It’s a teaching time of year. So, the next phase will be Phase Two, so that will entail some other things. Again, we’ll take it one step at a time. We’re not going to put any unreasonable expectations on anybody. It’s kind of a waste of everybody’s time. It’s how do they improve? Can they make adjustments? What do they do one day? OK, can they stack multiple days together? Look, they’re going to have setbacks. You’re going to go out there [and] you’re going to have a bad play. OK, how do you respond to that? Can you make the adjustment? Do you understand why that happened? Those are the types of things right now that are really important.”

While Taylor is the current favorite to win the starting spot, depending on what happens with Deshaun Watson, Caserio spoke about his eagerness to see each of the quarterbacks perform in training camp.

“I think we’re eager to see everybody,” Caserio said. “You’ve got to be careful going out there watching one throw and making a judgment off of like, guy made a great throw; he looked good today. Honestly, I don’t even know what that means. Again, it’s about stacking days on top of each other and just having a good series of days, weeks, months and then by the end of let’s call it minicamp or whenever that is that they actually have something in place to feel confident so when they go out there in training camp, they can actually go out there and perform at whatever capacity they can.”