AFC Notes: Tank Dell, Anthony Richardson, Colts, Jaguars,

Colts

Colts owner Jim Irsay believes that the only way QB Anthony Richardson will improve is by playing games in the preseason and regular season.

“I think it’s important,” Irsay said, via Stephen Holder of ESPN. “You get better by playing. I mean, practice and preseason games and watching in a quarterback room, that’s great. But, man, I’ll tell you, he’d get better by playing, and it’s something that is really important. Because, again, his development [is] so much of a key to the franchise’s future. It is the critical key. Everyone knows that his development into an outstanding, great player in this league is going to determine where we go and how far we go, and how long we have excellence. So, everything’s going to be based around that.”

“I always felt Richardson was going to be the guy that we went with early on,” Irsay added. “I mean, early in the process, going back into February. I know that’s one of the primary reasons why you start [him] opening game is because it gets better by playing. That’s the biggest benefit of it. And at the same time, I have to say, the fans have to have patience. Because it’s hard. We’ll see what happens, and he can surprise a lot of people. But it is tough. It’s tough, but it’s the way to go.”

Jaguars

Now that the draft is over, Jaguars GM Trent Baalke says the team will likely continue to add veteran players to its roster this offseason. 

“There’s always time to add,” Baalke said, via JagsWire.com. “We’re in a good situation with a cap perspective. We’re a lot less tight on the cap than we were a year ago. There’s room to work here. Coach [Doug Pederson] and I talked about this right after the draft. We’re not done putting this team together. We’re going to take a hard look at what we have. We’ve got a great chance with these young guys coming in in a couple of weeks and over the next month or so watching them as they go through the offseason program and really kind of assess where we are.”

“I would expect us to continue to make some moves,” Baalke added. “How big they are, how small they are, that remains to be seen. But we’re not done. We’re going to continue to work to build this team and make it as potent as we can going into the regular season.”

Texans

Texans third-round WR Tank Dell built a rapport with QB C.J. Stroud at the combine and told Stroud to tell the team to draft him once Stroud went second overall. Stroud obliged Dell’s request and the Texans later selected Dell in the third round. 

“Right after the Combine we were texting each other,” Dell said, via Chandler Johnson of KPRC. “He talked to me after the Combine, he said ‘I like how you run routes, I like how you play football’ he said he had been watching me and stuff like that. I told him vice versa and I appreciated him. After he got drafted, I sent him congrats and I told him, ‘Tell them come get me.’ He was like, ‘I got you. Trust me.’ The next day, he FaceTimed me out of nowhere. I texted him and he FaceTimed me, and he was like, ‘I told them I want you.’ So I was like, OK, it could happen. And then I got that call.”