AFC Notes: Trevor Lawrence, Joe Mixon, Anthony Richardson, Colts, Jaguars, Texans

Colts

Colts GM Chris Ballard believes the draft this year is strong offensively and is looking for protection and playmakers to surround QB Anthony Richardson with in his second season.

“When you’ve got a young quarterback, you’ve got to protect him,” Ballard said, via Joel A. Erickson of the Indianapolis Star. “You want to continue to add playmakers around him.”

Ballard also notes that there should be improved play from the team’s defensive backs group in 2024 after the young group struggled to find their footing last season.

“I think getting Dallis Flowers back will help,” Ballard added. “I think, looking back on it, when I made that statement, the injury part of it played into it, and then we gave him a bunch of rookies. Well now, they’re no longer rookies anymore. Jaylon Jones is no longer a rookie. JuJu (Brents) is no longer a rookie. Dallis Flowers we’re hoping to get back healthy. We got back Kenny (Moore) back in the mix. I think anybody within in the grand scheme of things would tell you that he’s one of the top nickels in the league. It’s not like these guys don’t have enough talent. Do we want to add some more? Of course. We always want to add competition. What we did was we gave him a bunch of young players without a vet presence back there other than Kenny and Julian (Blackmon).”

Jaguars

Jaguars LB Foyesade Oluokun believes missing out on a playoff spot last season will fuel them to improve this offseason. 

“I think it’ll fuel us,” Oluokun said, via John Oehser of the team’s site. “Everybody’s committed to doing things right this time around. We don’t want to get in that position again and it starts from the first game all the way to the last – just keeping improving every week no matter where the scoreboard is, keeping our standard every week. Sometimes you win games that you didn’t play your best in. You don’t learn from them if you’re not trying to get better. I think that kind of happened to us and we’re not going to do that this year.”

Jaguars QB Trevor Lawrence said they need to be “really intentional” about their development going forward. 

“We know what we need to do this offseason and be really intentional,” Lawrence said. “There are very tangible things we need to get better at – for myself, for us as an offense, as a team. Now we’re all on the same page of where we’re heading, where we’re going, what we need to work on. It’s necessary to do that at the beginning of the offseason. You don’t want to waste time. You don’t want to just come here and work out and go home and really not know where you’re heading and what you want to work on. It was good to get everybody centered and know where we’re going.”

Lawrence left six games last season due to injuries. He mentioned feeling fully recovered from last year’s rigors in March. 

“It took a while,” Lawrence said. “When March hit, I felt really good – like lifting and doing everything like totally normal. I’d been so used to the back half of the season adjusting everything, whether it was workout or throwing or practice or whatever it was. I would work out, but still modified. I’d say that [March] was when I started to feel like a hundred percent do the stuff that I normally do to get back in the kind of shape I want to be and train the way I wanted to.”

Texans

The Texans traded for RB Joe Mixon as he was going to be released by the Bengals and now GM Nick Caserio is hoping that Mixon is willing to stick with the team for a few seasons as they hope to head back to the playoffs next season.

“Joe was set to be released. He was a player that we evaluated, and we thought could help our team in some capacity,” Caserio said, via NFL.com. “So, to the earlier question, you get on the phone, talk to the team. ‘Hey, we’d be interested. Would you guys be willing to give up a pick, or if we gave up a pick would you be interested?’ That’s kind of how the trade was consummated. Just relative to the commitment we made to Joe, Joe has been a productive player, pretty consistent player, and we think he can help our team. We’re glad he’s here hopefully for a few more years. That’s how that all sort of came together.”