AFC Notes: Derrick Henry, Trevor Lawrence, Michael Pittman, Mike Vrabel , Colts, Jaguars, Titans

Colts

• Colts C Ryan Kelly when asked about the possibility of retirement: “Have I ever mentioned I’m thinking about retiring? Where does that s*** come from? Somebody needs to check their sources.” (Mike Chappell)
• Colts DT Grover Stewart says he would like to be back from the team but will let his agent handle things. (Joel Erickson)
• Colts WR Michael Pittman Jr. says he has loved his time with the team but added: “I wouldn’t be doing my due diligence if I didn’t see what was out there.” (Erickson)
• Pittman when asked about the franchise tag: “Franchise tag? I don’t think anyone would be displeased with $23 million. Do I necessarily want to play on one…not necessarily.” (Chappell)

Jaguars

Jaguars QB Trevor Lawrence and LB Josh Allen commented on the team’s 2023 season not ending with a trip to the playoffs as they had envisioned.

“The words now don’t really mean much,” Lawrence said, via the team website. “It’s fresh, and everyone’s going to deal with this in their own way. You should, everybody does, but you should feel sick, you should feel disappointed and frustrated in yourself, in the offensive, the team. Everything. You put in so much work. Coming in here, (if) we win, we make the playoffs. We have a home playoff game. And we are leaving here, we’re going home, and we’re done. We all understand where we’re at and how disappointing it is, the finish we had this year. We have to be better. It hurts to not be able to finish and you look at where we were at one point in the season and just finished really, really poorly. We kind of gave it away.”

“Ultimately, we have to play together and find a spark,” Allen added. “I feel like last year we had a spark and we lived, and we just followed that and rode that wave. This year, we were looking for it too much, hoping that it was going to come, and it never came. We had a determination. We had a want. This year, we were looking for that spark. And we never got that lit.”

Titans

• Josina Anderson reports that Titans HC Mike Vrabel‘s return next season is “50/50 right now”, according to her source.
• Titans QB Will Levis on Vrabel: “I hope Vrabel stays. I know he wants to be here.” (Joe Rexrode)
• Titans RB Derrick Henry on wanting to return to the team next season: “As I said earlier, any player would love to play for one franchise their whole career. Getting so close like we did and not finishing it, that’s always gonna be in the back of your mind. I want to bring a Super Bowl here really bad.” (Rexrode)