AFC Notes: Colts, Jaguars, Titans

Colts DE Samson Ebukam said he has a similar but more refined role in Indianapolis and is looking forward to having a strong year.

“Basically, the same honestly – just get off the rock and try to make plays. It’s that simple,” Ebukam said, via Colts Wire. “Yeah, I definitely think so because it was the same thing I was doing in San Fran. I think it’s just more refined now. So, it’s definitely going to come alive this year I’m feeling like.”

Ebukam has used this opportunity without pads to hone in on refining his technique.

“It’s kind of hard to practice like I want to practice without pads on, but at the same time it’s all technique based right now,” Ebukam said. “It allows me to have the time to focus on technique and just refining the things that I can do well and then the things that I didn’t do so well last year I can work on it now with this time and just sharpen it up so it’s good for the season.”

Jaguars

Jaguars HC Doug Pederson feels lucky to have the chance to add a veteran kicker like Brandon McManus this offseason. The team was then able to trade K Riley Patterson to the Lions for a future draft pick. 

“First of all, I can’t say enough about Riley and what he did for us last year,” Pederson said in a press conference. “Obviously, it was a huge kick in the Chargers game at the end of the year to get us to the divisional round. Obviously, wish him the best. You guys know how Trent [Baalke] and I feel — anytime you can add a player like Brandon who’s going into his 10th year with the experience he has, [plus] an opportunity to get something for Riley too, it’s not like it was just a total wash out there. But at least be able to get a pick for Riley and actually keep him in the NFL and keep him kicking back in Detroit where he came from and started. It was just an opportunity to get better as a football team and we’re always going to look to do that. It’s just unfortunate that when you’re at 90 guys, you have to make these types of decisions to move on. That’s something we’ve got to see with Brandon, with his pedigree and his experience. But I think that’s yet to be seen. There is a comfort level, obviously, as a decision-maker to put a kicker out there. When we look at some of the top kickers around the league, you cross the 50, 45, 40, you’re into field goal range. So, obviously, we’re going to take a look at that this spring and training camp and see how that plays out.”

• According to John Shipley, Jaguars ST coordinator Heath Farwell heard from McManus soon after his release from the Broncos, who told him that he wanted to play for Jacksonville. 
• Shipley adds that McManus gives the team more field goal range that they didn’t have with Patterson. 
• McManus’ one-year, $2 million deal carries a $1,500,000 base salary with $750,000 of it guaranteed and a $500,000 signing bonus. (OverTheCap)

Titans

Titans QB Ryan Tannehill said they are working to learn OC Tim Kelly‘s offense and pick up the nuances of his system. 

“We’re learning a new offense right now,” Tannehill said, via Nick Suss of the Nashville Tennessean. “That’s our number one objective as an offense is to master this offense. Taking advantage of every rep we get. A lot of new stuff, terminology, concepts, blocking schemes, the whole thing. There are a lot of mistakes being made, but they’re good mistakes. We’re growing from them.”

Tannehill reiterated it will take time to build into Kelly’s system. 

“It’s not something that’s going to happen overnight,” Tannehill said. “It’s going to go into training camp as well. So we just want to limit that and shorten that as much as we can. All get on the same page and keep pushing ourselves forward. If we can get through this earlier on having most of our guys here and being able to work through some of these things in the spring, it’s really going to help us in the fall moving forward.”

Tannehill mentioned that Kelly wants them to run “efficient plays” and limit bad situations. 

“Tim’s done a great job of allowing us to try to get in a good place,” Tannehill said. “Learn to want to run efficient plays and want to be positive whenever we can. Sometimes defense makes a good call and you get stuck in a bad play, but we want to limit those situations where we’re running a play into a bad look. Some of that’s on the quarterback. Some of that’s on the blocking scheme and the players executing it. But it all works together.”