NFL Offseason – Can Matt Ryan make the Indianapolis Colts Tremendous Bowl contenders? Can Dameon “Three Pitbulls” Pierce make Houston Texans camp bearable? Is Derrick Henry the final man standing for the Tennessee Titans? Will the Jacksonville Jaguars make Travis Etienne run round on a highschool subject? The reply to those questions and extra are right here in Walkthrough’s 2022 AFC South Coaching Camp Previews!
Houston Texans 2022 Coaching Camp Preview
Heading into Camp: The Group That Auto-Draft Constructed is again and fewer related than ever.
Camp Battles to Watch: The Texans upgraded a cross rush that ranked 23rd in adjusted sack rate final 12 months the identical means they’ve upgraded all of their items in the course of the Jack Easterby/Nick Caserio epoch: by signing veterans that profitable groups slough off. Jerry Hughes and Mario Addison arrive from the Payments with about 25 snaps of pass-rush sizzle left in them every. Rasheem Inexperienced quietly cobbled 6.5 sacks collectively for the Seahawks in 2021. Ogbonnia Okoronkwo regarded good in spurts when Rams opponents had been apprehensive about Aaron Donald and Leonard Floyd. All 4 of them would look nice coming off the bench on third-and-10. Two of them shall be requested to play commonly on first-and-10.
Newcomer to Obsess Over: Dameon “Three Pitbulls” Pierce is a bruising runner with an upbeat character that’s certain to make him a fan favourite. Caserio juiced Pierce’s fourth-round rookie contract with a $25,000 bonus for 2023 which can have slowed down midround rookie signings for different groups, as a result of NFL normal managers are precisely the type of people that max their bank cards on the cabin cruiser and find yourself serving their visitors drugstore-brand beer. Anyway, Pierce is the ability again on a depth chart loaded with typical Texans rummage-sale-acquisition velocity backs (Rex the Chargers Killer Burkhead, Marlon Mack), and his alpha pitbull mentality may assist him emerge as a fantasy sleeper.
Circle-It Date: No concept. When internet looking for Texans information in early July, articles in regards to the Rams, Patriots, and Supreme Courtroom rulings stored popping up. Will somebody please verify on the Texans press pool and make it possible for, like, Easterby did not serve them any particular Kool-Support? Anyway, in case you are actually dialed into the Lovie Smith/Davis Mills expertise, Walkthrough ain’t gonna yuck your yum, however you are by yourself in terms of camp protection.
Indianapolis Colts 2022 Coaching Camp Preview
Heading into Camp: The Colts slogan over the previous 5 years has been “We’re Doing Our Greatest Underneath the Circumstances!” Certainly, Chris Ballard did a wonderful job pulling the group out of the Carson Wentz affect crater, liberating Matt Ryan from the Falcons, and snaring Stephon Gilmore simply earlier than free-agency closing time. Now if Ballard may simply work out who retains making all these messes he is pressured to scrub up yearly…
Camp Battles to Watch: Former Eagles utility lineman Matt Pryor regarded first rate in spot begins at left and proper sort out in 2021, making him the frontrunner for the left sort out job. Third-round choose Bernhard Raimann (Central Michigan) “made a strong first impression” in minicamp, in accordance with Frank Reich, however he is a mid-major venture who was enjoying tight finish as just lately as 2019. Ryan is kind of deadbolted to his spot within the pocket as of late (Walkthrough is aware of that Derrik Klassen disagrees with this assessment however ain’t budging), so Reich is hoping Pryor and Raimann can develop immediately into above-average blindside protectors.
Newcomer to Obsess Over: Ryan brings management, maturity, professionalism, and self-confidence, attributes the Colts lacked on the quarterback place final season. (Walkthrough is not gratuitously ripping Wentz! That is virtually a Ballard press convention transcript!) On the identical time, Ryan’s 2016 MVP season was a very long time in the past, and his DVOA and DYAR have been in regular decline since. Ryan ought to bounce again modestly from a 2021 season when the Falcons surrounded him with temps and interns, but it surely’s onerous to think about Ryan making the Colts greater than wild-card fodder in a convention filled with rising star quarterbacks. For now, benefit from the summer season honeymoon.
Circle-It Date: The Colts host joint practices with the Lions on August 17 and 18, the latter of which shall be Fan Appreciation Day. It is going to be an important alternative for followers to observe two franchises procrastinate indefinitely about discovering a long-term quarterback answer.
Jacksonville Jaguars 2022 Coaching Camp Preview
Heading into Camp: The Jaguars purchased Trevor Lawrence an Ikea receiving corps at Ethan Allen costs in free company; made one of many high 5 gamers on the Georgia protection the primary total choose within the draft; and skipped obligatory minicamp so they may fumigate group headquarters for City Meyer cooties. Now it is time for Doug Pederson to lastly get began turning this ragtag assortment of rookies, newcomers, and City survivors into one thing team-shaped.
Camp Battles to Watch: Laviska Shenault is what a group will get after they throw themselves at Deebo Samuel and miss: a giant gadget man whose “intriguing potential” continues to be his main promoting level coming into his third season. Shenault is likely one of the few veterans who caught round for minicamp-turned-rookie-camp, maybe realizing that he was drafted two regimes in the past and does lots of the identical issues overcompensated newcomer Christian Kirk excels at. Shenault is price watching: if he can’t declare an offensive function, the Jaguars may polish him up for a commerce.
Newcomer to Obsess Over: Carlos Sanchez does an excellent job masking the Jaguars for the Black and Teal Report at FanSided, however he has been trapped in a temporal causality loop over the previous couple of months.
Step One: Some tastemaker outlet criticizes the Travon Walker draft choice in a listicle.
Step Two: Sanchez dutifully notes the criticism.
Step Three: Sanchez affirms that Walker indeed has boom-or-bust potential, however the Jaguars knew what they had been getting and it is best to attend and see.
Step 4: Some editor someplace calls for one other Every Group’s Riskiest Offseaon Transfer article to get by means of the summer season, and historical past resets itself.
As somebody who has written my share of offseason listicles and has been doing the identical Minnesota Vikings shtick for 4 years, I can relate with what Jaguars writers/bloggers are coping with. Let’s hope they’re prepared for the Walker debate to rage on for the remainder of the summer season/2022/till he is traded in 2025.
Returnee to Obsess Over: Lacking final season could have been a disguised blessing for Travis Etienne. Meyer would most likely have pressured Etienne right into a 30-touch function, then bitten off his pinkie or one thing. Etienne is again from his 2021 foot harm and looking pretty spry. Etienne’s fantasy ADP was hovering around 46th overall (twenty second amongst working backs) as of mid-July. Search for it to leap up when the fantasy sharps see him in pads and notice that the Jaguars offense is gonna look downright electrifying in comparison with groups just like the Giants and Bears. (This was difficult this weekend by information that James Robinson will surprisingly be prepared for the start of camp instead of going on PUP.)
Circle-It Date: It is extra like a circle-it location for the Jaguars, who’re holding training camp at Episcopal High School, 2 miles from TIAA Discipline, whereas a brand new apply facility is being constructed. Nothing says, “overlook the previous, we’re professionals now!” like sharing services with the native 15-year-olds!
Come to consider it, perhaps the Jaguars ought to wait some time earlier than debuting Etienne in full-contract drills.
Tennessee Titans 2022 Coaching Camp Preview
Heading into Camp: It is Derrick Henry, Ryan Tannehill, and Matt Vrabel versus the world! Among the many challenges they face: a depleted receiver corps, a roster wanting big-name expertise, the Curse of 370, and a convention the place a number of groups acquired considerably higher within the offseason whereas the Titans could not fairly break even.
Camp Battles to Watch: Dillon Radunz was drafted to play proper sort out in 2021 however wasn’t prepared. Third-round choose Nicholas Petit-Frere (Ohio State) is not a superior athlete or technician, however he is an enormous, high-effort, high-character man who ought to be capable of flatten some defenders for Henry. If Petit-Frere wins a beginning job, Radunz could transfer inside to compete at left guard with newcomer Jamarco Jones.
Additionally, Justin Melo of Music City Miracles stories that there could possibly be a Titans Kicker Battle rising between Randy Bullock and Iowa State UDFA Caleb Shudak. It is a lengthy shot as a result of Bullock simply signed a two-year deal and Shudak suffered a minor harm throughout OTAs, however there is a motive Walkthrough loves Titans Kicker Battles: you may all the time count on the sudden.
Newcomer to Obsess Over: First-round choose Treylon Burks missed chunks of rookie camp whereas coping with bronchial asthma after which missed a pair of minicamp practices for unspecified causes. Eh, it is not just like the Titans are relying on him to instantly substitute A.J. Brown as their WR1 whereas competing for a Tremendous Bowl or something.
The excellent news is that tight finish Austin Hooper emerged as Ryan Tannehill’s favourite goal throughout minicamp. After all, Tannehill actually did not have anybody else to throw to.
Circle-It Date: The Titans-Ravens preseason sport scheduled for August 11 could be a nap aside from one man: Malik Willis. Preseason goes to be Willis Szn in Tennessee, and whereas the third-round choose from Liberty will most likely spend that Ravens exhibition working for his life (that is what rookies normally do within the preseason, and if Tannehill has nobody to throw to, think about who Willis’ receivers shall be), it is going to most likely be most followers’ first actual take a look at a quarterback who was hardly ever on tv in school.
