Colts
Colts C Ryan Kelly mentioned that OL coach Tony Sparano Jr. prioritized building personal connections with players before diving into football strategies. Kelly emphasized the trust that Sparano was able to establish with the offensive linemen.
“I think after the ’22 season, Tony came in, saw that room for what it was, and it was still a lot of great players but not a lot of confidence, and I think there’s a lot of multitude of reasons for that,” Kelly said via ColtsWire. “So when he came in, the first day that we came in last year around this time, it was not even about football Xs and Os, it was about real personal stuff. Guys get into that because if you can’t build a relationship in there, then how can you build it out there? And I think that was a good part for us to trust Tony to trust us. And also, he just empowered us to go play. I think that starts with Shane, starts with Tony, starts with Jim Bob. Is to just go out there and play, and just trust our technique, trust that we’re great players and play together.”
Jaguars
Jaguars owner Shad Khan acknowledged having an opinion on who should handle offensive play calls between HC Doug Pederson and OC Press Taylor but expressed a desire not to impose his views on the matter.
“Yeah, I have an opinion,” Khan said, via Mark Long of the Associated Press. “But I don’t want to tell people ‘We need to do it’ because then things don’t work out, they look at me and say, ‘We did it because you wanted it.’”
In the end, Khan will leave that decision up to Pederson.
“Doug, he’s empowered,” Khan said. “I’m going to let him decide.”
Reflecting on key players like Trevor Lawrence, Christian Kirk, and Zay Jones missing time due to injuries last year, Khan expressed the need for “self-reflection” on how to prevent such injuries in the future.
“Injuries are a part of the game,” Khan said. “We had some of those injuries, but I think it’s organizational failure that it happened. All of these players I talked to, it’s like how could this happen? What happened? For me, it’s really a cause for self-reflection and then something good to come out of it because we just can’t have that this year.”
Titans
During an appearance on the Rich Eisen Show, Titans DT Jeffery Simmons shared that he has a reputation for engaging in trash talk during games.
“I’ve had the ref come to me with like ‘you have to calm it down,’” Simmons said. “Sometimes, the ref probably heard me really talking smack. He’s like ‘nine-eight, calm down.’ It’s been like that a couple times.”
Regarding their season-opener against the Bears, Simmons mentioned that he has already set his sights on rookie QB Caleb Williams for sporting painted fingernails.
“Painted nails. I can’t wait to say that to him,” Simmons said. “Most definitely. Oh, it’s gonna be one of them games. I mean, he probably gets smack-talked by his teammates right now, but especially a game like that. My first game, of course I missed the last end of the season. … It’s gonna be the first game of the season. They’ve got us coming to Chicago. All the hype’s gonna be around them of course. I think when special, even prime-time games … everybody just counts Tennessee out, which we all know. A game like Chicago, I’m sure (they’re) thinking we ’bout to get beat bad. That also make me even talk more smack and boost me up a little more, get into a different mode, as well. I’ll be in a different mode that game. I get it. You’ve got a first-round pick like Caleb Williams, which is a great player. Watching a couple games when he was at USC, he’s a hell of a player. But it’s a different league, and I’m excited to play him the first game.”
Simmons aims to establish the tone for the Titans’ defense throughout the season, not just in Week 1 against Williams.
“That’s the goal. That’s my mindset,” Simmons said. “Then again, I really don’t care who it may be. If it could be Tom Brady‘s first game of the season, I want to go out there and set the tone, not just for him but for who we are trying to be as a defense and as a team in Tennessee. Like you said, it’s one of them games where it’s his first real NFL game. Just hopefully, (I’m) not out to hurt no one, but our goal is to get to him and, like you said, welcome him to the NFL.”
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