Colts 

Colts QB Daniel Jones suffered a torn Achilles tendon back in December. Jones said he’s still in the recovery process but feels he’s in a “good spot” with his rehab. 

“I think there’s still work to be done,” Jones said, via James Boyd of The Athletic. “I wouldn’t say I’m all the way there at this point. So, yeah, I feel good about where I am and kind of where the rehab is taking me to this point. … I’m in a good spot.”

Jones explained that his Achilles tendon is important to his throwing strength, which he thinks he regained over the last couple of months. 

“It’s my back leg, my push leg,” Jones said. “There’s a strength component. There’s an ankle dorsiflexion component to loading into that front (foot), loading into that hip, loading into that side, but I felt strong throwing for a while now, and I think you can measure that with ball velocity and all that. So, I feel like I’ve kind of got to that point probably a month, two months ago.”

Colts LG Quenton Nelson said Jones is always putting in long hours at the team facility.

“He gets here early. He’s here late, and he’s doing things that matter to help him be at his best,” Nelson said. “You just really appreciate that in all facets of the game. He works endlessly to reach his whole potential, and that’s just a guy you can really appreciate, especially at that position. He sets the example for the whole team because everyone’s looking at him.”

Jaguars

Jaguars QB Trevor Lawrence is coming off one of his strongest seasons and now will get a second full offseason in HC Liam Coen’s system. Coen praised Lawrence’s leadership of the operation, as well as his willingness to challenge himself with new concepts and tight-window throws.

“I don’t know how many picks he actually threw, but I gotta believe it was under five throughout all of OTAs and minicamp,” Coen said, via the team’s YouTube. “So I think while trying to challenge himself and our receivers more with down the field passing, challenging him to try new things of concepts, and fit some throws into maybe windows you would otherwise take a checkdown in, while balancing that, I thought he did a really nice job of taking care of the football, running the whole operation, managing the protections, and some of the concepts on the field. I’m pleased with Trevor’s spring. Absolutely.”

Texans

Texans LB E.J. Speed is expected to miss the entire 2026 season after suffering a torn quadriceps and quad tendon. Houston LB Azeez Al-Shaair remains confident in their linebackers group and will apply some of the leadership qualities he learned from his time with the 49ers in 2022. 

“I think every year it’s been competitive rooms for us as a group, and I think this year is no different than the years prior, even from my first year with the guys that we had in to last year to now. Obviously, losing [LB] E.J. [Speed] was a big blow to us, but just in general, the guys that we have in there that they brought in from free agency, to the rookie class, to the guys that were already here in the past, I think just continuing to make each other better. That’s something that I always took pride in because in San Francisco, that’s what we did, me, Dre [Greenlaw], Fred [Warner]. I played with Kwon Alexander, Malcolm Smith, and it was all of us helping each other but pushing each other to be as great as we wanted to be,” Al-Shaair said, via TexansWire. 

Al-Shaair doesn’t think Speed’s injury should affect any players’ mentality, and that you always have to be prepared to play. 

“I think the biggest thing is, like, whether E.J. was healthy or not, it shouldn’t change the mentality for any player. You’re preparing, you’re treating yourself like a starter, because in the NFL, we want the best of the best. We don’t want the ones to be at this level and then the drop-off to be drastic. The goal is that if I’m not playing, if [LB] Henry [To’oTo’o] is not playing, if whoever’s not playing, that whoever goes in there can seamlessly pick it up and keep it moving.So, I don’t think it changed anybody’s mindset in our room. Obviously, just from the person that E.J. is and the player that he is, it sucks. He works extremely hard, and all summer, all offseason, staying here with all the guys, and we’ve just been training, really just excited for what it was going to look like playing with him year two in the same scheme and everything like that. Obviously, it sucks from that aspect but have full confidence in all the other guys to continue to work like they’ve been doing, and just whoever gets the opportunity is going to step up and make the plays.”