AFC Notes: Colts, Jaguars, Texans, Titans

Colts

• According to Over The Cap, the Colts will pick up $16 million in cap space with no dead money following LT Anthony Castonzo‘s retirement. 
• Castonzo considered retiring last offseason and said those thoughts never really went away: “It’s one of those things where when you know, you know… I’ve kind of been thinking about it and contemplating it…. Very pleased with my decision. I feel good about it.” (Stephen Holder)
• Knee and ankle injuries didn’t really impact his decision, but Castonzo said they provided a “little extra punctuation.” (George Bremer) 
• After 10 years in the NFL, Castonzo felt the time was right to walk away: “I feel like I put everything I had into the game for 10 years. … I don’t have a single regret.” (Jim Ayello)
• He added he’s retiring for good and doesn’t plan to waffle: “I made the decision. I’m sticking to it.” (Ayello)
• The Colts have discussed possibly moving G Quenton Nelson out to tackle as a replacement and Castonzo says Nelson is absolutely capable of making that move: “We’ve talked about it, and if that’s what happens, I’m going to tell you right now, he’s going to do a nice job. He’s got all the skills to do it.” (Mike Wells)

Jaguars

• According to Josina Anderson, 49ers DC Robert Saleh is not completely out of the picture with the Jaguars as a head coaching candidate and could be a fallback option if things don’t work out with Urban Meyer. 
• Regarding Meyer, NFL Media’s Mike Garafolo says Meyer still appears to be deciding if he wants to take the job or not, as if he was 100 percent in the deal would already be done. 

Texans

• If Texans QB Deshaun Watson does force a trade, the Athletic’s Aaron Reiss thinks the Dolphins, Panthers and 49ers would be the teams he’d be most interested in waiving his no-trade clause for to facilitate a deal. 
• Former Texans WR Andre Johnson, who was on the advisory committee for the Texans’ head coach and GM search, blasted the team on Twitter Tuesday: “If I’m
  @deshaunwatson I will stand my ground. The Texans organization is known for wasting players careers. Since Jack Easterby has walk into the building nothing good has happened in/for the organization and for some reason someone can’t seem to see what’s going on. Pathetic!!!”

Titans

The Titans didn’t replace former DC Dean Pees with another defensive coordinator heading into the 2020 season. Instead, OLB coach Shane Bowen took on a lot of the duties of the position, like leading meetings and calling plays, with a heavy input from HC Mike Vrabel. The results weren’t good and Vrabel acknowledged they would re-evaluate. 

“I think that this thing kind of took a life of its own,” Vrabel said in his season-ending press conference. “I guess that it was really important. But Shane led the meetings, Shane led the walk-throughs. Shane called the defense. And, again, I think we get caught up too much in titles. And I guess I apologize because clearly I didn’t think it would take on a life of its own. But we’ll coach better, we’ll play better. So we’re going to evaluate the roster and the coaching staff, the plays that we run, and the scheme that we have — everything across the board, because we ultimately didn’t win a championship.”

• ESPN’s Field Yates highlights Titans WR Corey Davis as someone positioned to take advantage of the usual demand for wide receivers in free agency.
• We have him included in our Top 100 – 2021 Free Agents list.