AFC Notes: Colts, Jaguars, Texans

Colts

Patriots HC Bill Belichick said it will be difficult to stop RB Jonathan Taylor on Saturday.

“Taylor is a hard guy to tackle. He’s strong. Runs through a lot of arm tackles. He’s very fast. Not many players defensively can catch him,” Belichick said, via ESPN’s Mike Reiss.

“He’s really been effective when he’s been able to get through the line of scrimmage and break a 60- or 70-yard run. It’s hard for teams to count on that in the running game, but he’s been able to deliver for them with his speed and running ability.”

LB coach Jerod Mayo said the Colts’ offensive line is also a huge piece to their running game. 

“It’s an unbelievable running attack. I think it starts with the front,” Mayo said. “A lot of people say it starts with Taylor, but you look at those guys up front, they’ve done a great job opening holes for the backs.”

• Former NFL GM Scott Pioli highlights Colts OC Marcus Brady as a compelling candidate who deserves to receive interest for a head coaching job. 
• Colts HC Frank Reich said preparing to play the Patriots’ defense is challenging: “Not a lot of teams play the way they play. You have to be willing to consider what you’re going to do to adapt to the way they play you… We’re not going to change everything. We’re going to do what we do.” (Stephen Holder)
• Reich mentioned seventh-round WR Mike Strachan‘s inability to play special teams is leading to him being inactive. (Erickson)

Jaguars

• Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer notes the difference between how HC Urban Meyer handles the offensive staff and personnel is different than how he handles defense. Meyer’s background was on the offensive side of the ball, most notably working with receivers, and has paid special attention to that group. Breer expects significant staff changes if Meyer is with the team in 2022.
• Jaguars owner Shad Khan addressed the coaching staff in person in response to reports about “tension” in the building. Khan has expressed confidence in his staff, but expects things to tighten up. (Josina Anderson)
• Khan conveyed that he does not want information leaking and causing distractions. Khan’s main objective of the meeting was to get the staff on the same page and address feelings of being unappreciated or undermined. (Anderson)
• Jaguars first-round QB Trevor Lawrence said he needs to play better to get the offense going: “It obviously starts with me being the quarterback and I’ve got to accept all the blame for what I did. I didn’t play well, didn’t put us in good situations. I take that on the chin.” (Josh Oehser)
• Lawrence added the offense has to catch up to the defense’s production: “We’ve got to help our defense, you know? They kept us in the game, gave us plenty of chances but we didn’t do anything with it. We have to be better for the defense. They’re playing pretty well and we put them in a bad spot..” (Oehser)

Texans

The Texans entered the 2021 season with a fair amount of money invested in the running back position, at least relative to other teams. Between guaranteed money and non-minimum deals, the Texans had David Johnson, Mark Ingram, Phillip Lindsay and Rex Burkhead all under contract. Ingram and Lindsay were traded and released and neither were effective while they were in Houston. The Texans rank last in the league in rushing with no one besides QB Tyrod Taylor over 3.2 yards per carry. 

“Obviously, it’s not been very good,” Texans HC David Culley said via ESPN’s Sarah Barshop. “The thing that we’ve got to continue to do is just figure out what is best for our people, what they do best, and do those things instead of doing runs that we feel like are good runs, but our personnel may not fit those runs.”