AFC Notes: Trevor Lawrence, Joe Mixon, Jaguars, Texans, Titans

Jaguars

Jaguars QB Trevor Lawrence had high praise of rookie WR Brian Thomas Jr., saying the receiver looks skilled beyond his years. 

“He’s a gamer, and just shows up ready to play every time he goes out there,” Lawrence said, via John Oehser of the team’s site. “That’s exciting to see as a quarterback, just some of the plays he made. He doesn’t seem like a rookie at all. He has that quiet confidence about him.”

Jaguars TE Evan Engram thinks Thomas Jr. is a “huge spark” to the team and is assuring the rookie of his impact. 

“It’s a huge spark for our team,” Engram said. “I told him today: ‘You might be a rookie. You might be quiet. But that energy you have on Sunday, the confidence we say come out of you, that’s going to help our team. We see it. We feel it.’ Whatever he’s been doing, he needs to keep doing it. He has a bright future ahead. It’s only his first game. He’s going to continue to learn. He’s going to get better. He’s going to get more accustomed to the game, to our offense.

Lawrence said Thomas Jr. will cause defenses to react and ultimately change how they cover their receivers. 

“Obviously they had a lot of respect for him,” Lawrence said. “Moving forward, it sort of changes how you cover a guy like that the rest of the game when that happens early. That’s only going to help us.”

Texans

Texans RB Joe Mixon saw a heavy workload in his season debut where he rushed the ball 30 times in their win over the Colts. Houston OC Bobby Slowik believes Mixon can be a workhorse but stated that every game will be different in terms of who gets the ball the most.

“Physically, I’d say he’s probably one of the few guys remaining in the NFL that could handle that,” Slowik said, via Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. “I mean, there’s not many offenses you’re going to run the ball to the same guy 30 times over and over, and over and over again every week. But I’m not really worried about his workload in that regard. He’s just built and has in his past, done that before and is built to do that.”

“But it really is more of we’ll give Joe the ball as many times as necessary and we’ll give [receiver] Nico [Collins] the ball as many times as necessary and we’ll give [receiver Stefon Diggs] the ball as many times as necessary and [receiver] Tank [Dell] and like really all the way across the board.”

Titans

Tennesse’s defense allowed zero offensive touchdowns in their Week 1 loss against the Bears. Titans DC Dennard Wilson liked the performance but wants them to generate more turnovers going forward.

“That’s the one thing that you come out of the game and say, we didn’t take the ball away,” Wilson said, via AtoZ Sports Nashville. “That’s a huge emphasis for us, and that’s a huge emphasis going into this game (in Week 2).”

Wilson also talked about second-round DT T’Vondre Sweat‘s debut and raved about his potential.

“He’s the player we envisioned when we drafted him. He keeps getting better and better. In his mind, he wants to be one of the best defensive tackles in the National Football League and that’s what we want him to be.”