AFC Notes: Jaguars, Steelers, Broderick Jones, Titans

Jaguars

• Jaguars HC Doug Pederson said they will limit sixth-round WR Parker Washington and DT Raymond Vohasek in this weekend’s rookie minicamp, via John Shipley. 
• Jacksonville also hosted undrafted QB N’kosi Perry and free-agent LB Joe Giles-Harris to their rookie minicamp on a tryout basis, per Mark Long. 

Steelers

Steelers GM Omar Khan spoke in depth about the team opting to draft OT Broderick Jones out of Georgia in the first round of the draft.

“We spent a lot of time with Broderick,” Khan said in an interview with Pro Football Talk. “We interviewed him at the Combine, we went to his Pro Day, had dinner with him the night before his Pro Day, spent a lot of time with him at his Pro Day, and then we brought him in for one of our 30 visits. You know, we just, we just felt like he was a Steeler. He was just a very impressive young man and obviously, he’s a good player and the future is bright for him. He hasn’t played a ton of football and you know there’s a lot of upside there. But going through the process, he was a player that we had targeted, and the way the board was coming down, we knew there was a chance he’d still be there, but once we got the opportunity to get the 14 [pick], you know it was a no-brainer for us.”

Khan thinks that Jones fits the mold of the Steelers organization and feels that all of the team’s draft picks this year will fit in well with the franchise. 

“When you’re a part of this organization, people ask me this all the time like, ‘What does it mean to be a Steeler?’” Khan said. “When you’re a part of this organization, you just sort of know, when you’ve been here long enough. Like there’s, I’d give you 1,000 characteristics, but you just sort of know, just being around Broderick and Keanu Benton, Nick Herbig, Darnell Washington. When you’re around it, you just know that these guys are going to fit into our culture and they’re going to make us better and they’re Steelers, going to be impactful in the community. You just know and that’s the best way I can answer it. I could give you a million characteristics, we just know.”

The Steelers wound up trading up three spots to draft Jones, who was part of a group of players that the team had their eyes on. It has been noted by some that Patriots HC Bill Belichick may have helped the Steelers leapfrog the Jets, who picked at No.15 and might have been looking to select Jones.  

“We had a couple of players that we targeted,” Khan said. “Broderick was in that group. As the draft was going you know, as I mentioned earlier, it was just we didn’t want to risk him not being there. We felt like he’s going to help us not only in the short term but long term. We worked the phones, and the opportunity was there for us to trade up and get him and you know we had to give up a fourth. You don’t like to give up your draft picks if you don’t have to, especially when you don’t have a lot of them in a given year. It was just an opportunity. The opportunity was there, and you know, we were convinced that we wanted to make Broderick a Steeler.”

“Those conversations did not happen with us,” Khan added on Belichick and the Jets. “I think when these trades happen, we make an offer and say, ‘This is our best offer’ and if it works, great, and if it doesn’t, it doesn’t. That’s what we were comfortable giving up was a fourth-round pick. Fortunately for us, it worked out for us and the Patriots.”

Titans

ESPN analyst and former NFL QB Matt Hasselbeck had high praise of Titans’ second-round QB Will Levis‘ physical build. 

“I think I heard this statement a few times at the combine, and I thought it was really good: He looks like a create-a-player on Madden,” Hasselbeck said, via Jim Wyatt of the team’s official site. “He looks exactly the way you want someone to look. He’s strong and fit.”

Hasselbeck reminded Levis that Tom Brady was picked at No. 199, Aaron Rodgers slid further than expected, and Hasselback was picked No. 187 himself.