AFC Notes: Colts, Texans, Titans

Colts

Colts GM Chris Ballard voiced support of CB Rock Ya-Sin after having some “rough moments” in 2020.  

“Rock had his good moments, and he had his rough moments, no different than a lot of second-year corners,” Ballard said, via Kevin Bowen of 1075TheFan. “I’ll tell you a story, I’m reminded of Charles Tillman, who I think is a Hall of Fame player. I’ll never forget, I think it was Charles’ 2nd or 3rd year playing, we played Carolina in the playoffs and Steve Smith just had a monster day against him. Charles Tillman went on to have a great career. It’s hard to play corner in this league. The rules make it hard. They call PI on any freaking bump that happens. It is very difficult to play corner.”

Ballard added that Ya-Sin is aware of improvements he must make and believes the cornerback has “the right mental attitude” to progress. 

“Rock knows he has to make some improvement,” said Ballard. “But I think he has the right mental attitude to do it. We think he will work and get better.”

Texans

• According to NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport, the Texans have shown a willingness to listen to trade offers for other players on their roster — but not QB Deshaun Watson.
• Texans RB Buddy Howell‘s one-year deal can be worth up to $1.8 million and includes a $1 million base salary, $200,000 signing bonus, $300,000 in per-game active roster bonuses and the rest in incentives classified as not likely to be earned. (Aaron Wilson)

Titans

Defense was a major problem for the Titans in 2020 despite being a playoff team. Tennessee managed just 19 sacks despite throwing a ton of cash at bringing in some pass rushers and ranked 29th in passing yards surrendered. The Titans didn’t have a formal defensive coordinator, as OLB coach Shane Bowen ran meetings and HC Mike Vrabel had hefty input. But despite the poor results on the field, the Titans elected to promote Bowen to full-time defensive coordinator this offseason. 

“At the end of the day, I think Shane is a good coach,” Titans S Kevin Byard told the team website via ESPN’s Turron Davenport. “And I think it is kind of unfair for a guy to get a promotion to a new job and everybody just pounds on him as if he’s a bad coach. I really do think he’s a great coach.”

Titans GM Jon Robinson said the reasons for their defensive shortcomings last season went beyond Bowen. 

“When it comes to execution of defense, there’s a lot of things that go into it. There’s the call itself, there’s the execution of the call, it’s the players that are on the field trying to execute the call. It’s more than one thing when things go good, and when things don’t go so good. It’s a combination of a lot of different things on every single play,” he said. 

• According to Terry McCormick, “nothing has changed” for the Titans and OT Isaiah Wilson after recently posting he is “done with football as a Titan” in a deleted Tweet.
• Massachusetts OT Larnel Coleman has had a recent virtual interview with the Titans. (Justin Melo)