Colts

Colts CB Sauce Gardner enters his second season in Indianapolis after being acquired from the Jets. Colts DC Lou Anarumo wants Gardner to play freely and avoid putting extra pressure on himself. 

“He knows what the trade was for,” Anarumo said, via Nathan Brown of the Indianapolis Star. “And he’s a prideful guy, and he certainly doesn’t want to disappoint. And I just wanted to let him know that I don’t care who you are, it’s not about just one person. Go out there, play free and you don’t – have your mind clear and don’t worry about putting all that added extra pressure on you, because if you do that, then you’re just weighing yourself down. I just want him to go out and be the best version of him, and if he does that, that’ll be good enough, and we’ll win a bunch of games.”

Gardner doesn’t feel like he has anything to prove in 2026, but wants to take advantage of any time he is targeted. 

“I don’t really think I have anything to prove to nobody but I’ve got certain goals, and I want to reach those,” Gardner said. “But I don’t give myself no more excuses. Just like, man, if I get two targets, I need two picks. That’s how I think. No excuses – the ball gets thrown your way, you make a play. I don’t care if you get 30 targets (all year), you’ve got to have 30 plays on the ball. That’s how my mind has changed over the years. You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s over with. I wish I could get some back, ’cause I didn’t know how few opportunities I’d have for a few years.”

Gardner reiterated that he understands he won’t face many passes and wants to “steal a play” when the opportunity comes. 

“You can look at it like just a preseason game, but I look at it like, ‘Sauce, this is what you might have to do – guard your man, look at (the quarterback’s) eyes, see what else is happening, and then you might just be able to steal a play,” Gardner said. “They’re probably not going to throw the ball right to me. I’ve just got to have that mentality, that mindset.”

Texans

Houston had two undrafted free agents make the initial 53-man roster: DE Sabastian Harsh and CB Collin Wright. Texans HC DeMeco Ryans feels Harsh earned his way on the roster because he consistently made plays and was able to pick up where he left off after missing some time with an injury.

“I think Sabastian is a guy who we talk about training camp and the competition. Sabastian is a guy who has earned his way on the team,” Ryans said, via the Texans Wire. “Every time he was out there on the field, he found a way to make plays. He did it the way we asked him to do it. He showed up time and time again. He missed a little time with injury, then he showed back up again, still doing the same thing as where he left off. You see a guy with the type of motor that he has, the strength that he has, the playmaking ability that he has, he deserves to be on a team. We’re not going to let a guy like that out. We wanted to keep him here. We see the talent that he has. He’s a really good pickup by our scouting department, by Nick [Caserio], finding a guy like Harsh and him making our team.”

Speaking on Wright, Ryans was impressed by his ability to consistently show up. Ryans said Wright always stepped up to his matchup, regardless of who he went up against.

“Ever since he stepped in the building in OTAs, rookie mini camp, he’s a guy that’s been very consistent. No matter which receiver he’s gone up against, he never shied away,” Ryans added. “He stood there. He found a way to make a play on the football. Every day he was out there at practice. He’s another guy who earned the right to be on the team. It’s not just we like the guys and they’re good guys. No, we feel like both guys can help us win games just because of the consistency of which they’ve shown out there on the practice field.”

Titans

Cam Ward enters the second year of his career after a rookie campaign that culminated in the Titans going 3-14. Ward said their approach in training camp was to be “efficient” on first and second downs to avoid being in third-and-long. 

“Our goal for training camp is being efficient on first and second down,” Ward said, via Turron Davenport of ESPN. “Stay out of third-and-long, because in third-and-5 or less, you pretty much know what they can play. They can still do something different. But when you get into third-and-6, third-and-7 to 10 plus, that’s when you got to really key in on your protections. It’s going to be deeper dropbacks. They know it’s a dropback pass, so you’re really playing at the defense’s advantage.”

Titans OC Brian Daboll said Ward has done well learning his system.

“I think Cam has really grasped what we want to do, and we just got to continue to build and work on the execution part of it,” Daboll said.

Ward said implementing Daboll’s scheme has begun to slow down for him 

“Everything slowed down,” Ward said. “We’re finally at the point where we’re not going to be installing too much stuff. One thing about coach [Daboll] is he can go to walkthrough, he can make up a play in his head, and we’ll run it right there and we will execute it right there. So it’s going to be nice to really show what we really are about when the time comes.”