AFC South Notes: Colts, Jaguars, Titans, Texans

Colts

Colts GM Chris Ballard said the team is comfortable moving forward with backup QB Jacoby Brissett as their starter, given their offense does not revolve around Andrew Luck‘s health. 

“I’ve thought about this a lot,” Ballard said, via Kevin Bowen of 1070TheFan. “When I first came into the door, one of the things we talked about was building a team and it wasn’t going to be just about one guy. Look, I understand the importance of Andrew Luck. You kidding me? This guy is one of the top-5 quarterbacks in the league.”

Ballard went on to praise Brissett and believes having a capable backup quarterback is important in building a team. 

“But we also got another quarterback we like, in Jacoby Brissett. To me, that’s part of building a team. You have to be able to handle things when things don’t go the way you planned them out to be.”

Jaguars

Jaguars DT Taven Bryan didn’t make quite the impact of some of the other first-round picks in 2018. Bryan played all 16 games, but was in for less than a third of Jacksonville’s defensive snaps and had only 20 tackles and a sack. Bryan’s continuing to focus on his development this year. 

“I haven’t really shown what I can do,” Bryan said via John Reid of the Florida Times-Union. “I just got to work on a lot of things. I have to make sure my pass rush looks a little better. I know I’m pushing the pocket and stuff, but you need stats obviously. Stats help the team. The more pressure, the more hits and touches you can get on a man, the better we can do. I really got to step it up.”

Texans

• Per Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle, Texans third-round TE Kahale Warring remains in the concussion protocol. 
• Texans OT Matt Kalil hasn’t practiced since being stepped on in joint practices last week, but HC Bill O’Brien says the team is just trying to make sure their starting left tackle is ready for the season opener. (Wilson)
• The team is also managing reps for WR Will Fuller, who left practice early Thursday. (Wilson)

Titans

For the first time all offseason, the Titans had their full complement of weapons healthy at training camp. Veteran TE Delanie Walker has been progressing well from a serious ankle injury that ended his 2018 season, while understudy Jonnu Smith was just activated from the PUP list.

Second-round WR A.J. Brown and RB Derrick Henry also returned from injuries that have hampered them all camp, joining WRs Corey Davis and Adam Humphries. Collectively it’s the best batch of skill-position talent QB Marcus Mariota has had in his career. 

“Absolutely, it was nice to have everybody out there,” Mariota said via Jim Wyatt of the team’s website. “At the same time, for someone like Jonnu, who is coming off a major injury like that, just all the hard work that he put in to get to the point where he’s at now, it’s really cool for him. It’s an opportunity for us to get better, and it was nice to see everybody out there.”

• According to Paul Kuharsky, Titans RB David Fluellen is recovering from knee surgery but could be ready by Week 1’s game against the Browns.