AFC Notes: Trevor Lawrence, Shaquille Leonard, Colts, Jaguars, Texans

Colts

Colts LB Shaquille Leonard said he was disheartened to learn of his diminished role on the defense and is upset with his lack of playing time.

“So that’s when I kind of knew, and it sucked hearing that,” Leonard said, via ESPN’s Stephen Holder. “You’re already not playing on third [down]; you’re taking the reps on second down too? So it’s very heartbreaking to get that, but it is what it is.”

Leonard added that DC Gus Bradley has encouraged him to continue to ask for more playing time but that wasn’t enough to appease Leonard.

“Everybody says they want you to keep that fight up until you step on toes,” Leonard said. “I honestly don’t know what to do. I have put my best foot forward every day. I come in the building, do the best I possibly can to be the best leader I can be. I go out to practice. I practice extremely hard. I play extremely hard — do my job as well as I possibly can and just let the chips fall where they fall. I’ve just got to control what I can control. That is play well on the snaps that I play, and then I sit on the bench frustrated. And, when you get back out there, continue to do what I do.”

Jaguars

Jaguars QB Trevor Lawrence thinks they are still looking for consistency on the offensive side and feels the turnovers committed in Week 8 against the Steelers kept Pittsburgh in the game. 

“Every week you kind of hope it’s that week [for an offensive breakout],” Lawrence said, via ProFootballTalk. “We’ve been a lot more consistent on just moving the ball, not stalling out as much. But then, you see two weeks ago, we have the dumb turnovers that kept Pittsburgh in the game and gave them a shot and didn’t let us really takeoff and blow the game open.”

Lawrence added they are putting more emphasis on the details, preventing turnovers, and being more successful on third downs. 

“It’s something like that every week that we have to fix, you’re hoping every week is that week and we’re emphasizing it. We got a lot of emphasis on the details of just not having turnovers, being better on third down and all those things play together and have a clean game.”

Lawrence is hopeful about putting their offensive pieces together against the 49ers in Week 10. 

“That’s the idea, having a game where you can come out of it not many turnovers at all, being great on third downs, scoring in the red zone — it would be nice to put all of those together this week against a good team like this,” Lawrence said. “This is the week to do it, you got to play well against great teams.”

• Jaguars HC Doug Pederson said WR Zay Jones (knee) is a “long shot” to play in Week 10 against the 49ers, via Michael DiRocco. 

Texans

• The Houston Texans officially ruled out seven players from Week 10, including WR Nico Collins (calf), RB Dameon Pierce (ankle), FB Andrew Beck (ankle/elbow/shoulder), K Ka’imi Fairbairn (quad), LB Jake Hansen (hamstring/hand), TE Brevin Jordan (foot), CB Steven Nelson (back/neck).