Colts
- Jordan Schultz, citing a league source, reports that Colts owner Jim Irsay is a “huge” fan of Seahawks QB Russell Wilson and “would love” to acquire him.
- However, Schultz points out that Indianapolis has no first-round picks in 2022, which makes negotiating difficult.
- While appearing on The Pat McAfee Show, Ian Rapoport mentioned that the Colts are “actively looking for another quarterback” this offseason: “I know they are actively looking for another QB because Chris Ballard is always trying to improve.”
Texans
Texans HC Lovie Smith came out of nowhere at the end of Houston’s coaching search to land the job, leading to speculation he was hired in part to avoid the negative PR hiring Josh McCown — rumored to be the Texans’ top choice for head coach despite his only relevant coaching experience coming as a volunteer high school QB coach — over other, more qualified Black candidates would have brought.
The optics alone put Smith in a tough position of having to defend his credentials, as he has been an NFL head coach two other times before. He says even though he wasn’t publicly a candidate, that might not have reflected the way things were behind the scenes.
“I tell most coaches in general: Every time you coach, you’re kind of interviewing for a job,” Smith said via NBC Sports’ Peter King. “When you say that I wasn’t [a candidate for the job], I think ownership, everyone, players, they all got a chance to see I came in with the background. I’ve been a head football coach. They got a chance to get to know me and see me in a leadership role. Once this job became open, you start looking at everyone. I know there are some public guys, but the organization has been asking my opinion on quite a few things and just what we needed to do going forward. You never know what’s really going on behind the scenes. But to say that I just got popped up at the end, I don’t think that was truly the case.”
Titans
Titans LB Bud Dupree is looking forward to attacking the offseason and getting completely healthy in anticipation of his second season in Tennessee.
“This (2021) season reminds me of my second year in the league when I had a sports hernia and missed like 10 games,” Dupree said, via the team’s official website. “Battling through stuff…you get through it and the next year you come back strong. I have to take this offseason and make sure everything is at its highest ability when I come in Day 1, there are no setbacks and nothing to get right and everything would be in a mode to turn up.”
Dupree pledges to be as healthy as he’s ever been in 2022 and said that he started to get close to 100 percent towards the end of last season.
“At the end of the (2021) season I started to feel good, but they always say after the ACL, that second season is when you start to feel all the way back,” Dupree said. “So, I am looking forward to that. But at the end of the day, there are no excuses. Once you go on the field you have to get stuff done, fight through injuries, people go through that all the time. I will make sure (next) year I am as healthy as I’ve ever been and keep going.”
Dupree is excited about his new home in Nashville and is ready to put last season behind him and move forward.
“You have to look at the positive side of things, and you just have to keep grinding,” Dupree said. “The city of Nashville is lit, I would definitely say that. I did not know anything about Nashville (before I got here). (And) the organization, there’s a lot of different things I didn’t know about. It’s a family family-oriented organization, and guys really look out for one another. The players are very close-knit, the guys are really looking to know one another outside of football, outside the building, which plays a big part when you are going to battle with your brothers on the field and that is always a plus.”
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