AFC Notes: Travis Hunter, Cam Ward, Lou Anarumo, Colts, Jaguars, Titans

Colts 

Colts DL DeForest Buckner is excited about the changes DC Lou Anarumo is going to make to the defense.

“When I was doing my research on him, I saw that a lot of the players back in Cincy used to call him the ‘Mad Scientist’,” Buckner said, via ESPN. “And I found out why when I got the first install. It’s been some good stuff.”

Colts CB Charvarius Ward is excited about what he’s going to be allowed to do in the defense.

“He’s going to let me press, he’s going to let me do my thing,” Ward said, a second-team All-Pro selection in 2023. “Be aggressive and just be me — be that guy that they paid me to be.”

Jaguars

Jaguars HC Liam Coen said the team placed an emphasis on getting rookie WR/CB Travis Hunter extra reps on the offensive side of the ball, and he will be learning the defensive side next week.

“We just kind of ended up making a decision that from yesterday to today, we wanted to be able to clean up some of the things that we may have been able to miss yesterday [and] get extra reps on the offensive side of the ball and next week he’ll start to roll on defense,” Coen said, via ESPN.

Hunter explained that it takes longer to get acclimated to a new offensive playbook than it does lining up against your man on defense.

“You’ve just got to get used to it,” Hunter said. “It just has a lot of different types of calls, but other than that, the defense is pretty easy. You’ve just got to get used to the offense. Just longer calls and concepts are different [on offense than defense].”

Coen said Hunter has already begun to learn some of the defensive calls and has a working knowledge of their philosophy on that side of the ball.

“He’s been able to dive in and learn some of our three-deep coverages, what do we call our three-deep coverages on the outside, if he has to be manned up on the backside of a three-by-one, he knows all of those calls already,” Coen said. “So, at the end of the day, it’s going to be about, on the defensive side of the ball, communication. The technique and fundamentals, we’ll continue to harp on, but it’s really about being on the same page as the rest of the guys on the back end from a communication standpoint and the rest will kind of take care of itself. He’s obviously having to learn both sides of the ball. He’s a football-smart guy. The game makes sense to him. And so now it’s just about putting in that time, that extra time that he’s going to have to do in order to be successful.”

Titans

Following the first on-field work with first-round QB Cam Ward, Titans HC Brian Callahan explained the first steps they have taken towards getting him acclimated. 

“We have it all broken down and put it all in our terminology,” Callahan said, via ESPN’s Turron Davenport. “We try to teach our system the way we run it, and then we take input from Cam, and all the quarterbacks for that matter, on different things they’ve done, how they’ve called it, how they read it.”

Ward has felt comfortable because they have used the same route concepts and acknowledged the slight footwork changes they’ve worked on. 

“It’s been the same route concepts,” Ward said. “A little bit different footwork, but that all comes with time and preparation. I got two good coaches who continue to motivate me every day in coach Callahan and [quarterbacks] coach Bo [Hardegree], so I think I got a good group of guys around me to help.”