For the last time before the 2022 NFL draft, which begins on April 28, we’re taking a look at what the Tennessee Titans’ AFC South rivals — the Houston Texans, Jacksonville Jaguars and Indianapolis Colts — are up to.
In Indianapolis, the Colts haven’t closed the door on a reunion with T.Y. Hilton. Even if the veteran returns, Indy needs more help at receiver, a position they could very well address in the upcoming draft.
The Jaguars own the No. 1 overall pick yet again, and while general manager Trent Baalke says the team is still working through who it will pick, the options have apparently been whittled down to four.
Down in Houston, the Texans aren’t expecting much (if any) trade action for their No. 3 overall pick, as general manager Nick Caserio recently admitted.
Those are just three of the stories we’re covering for you this week. Here’s a look at those and six more in our latest AFC South round-up.
Details of the two-year, $20 million contract Gilmore signed with the Colts have been revealed. The deal gives Indy an opportunity to get out of it in 2023, with a dead-cap charge of $2 million. The first-year cap hit is $7.5 million. Indy now has nearly $13.5 million in cap space after the move.
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Hilton’s future with the Colts, a team that needs help at receiver, is murky, but general manager Chris Ballard is keeping the door open for his return.
“We’ll still have some talks with T.Y. (Hilton). I think you all know my feelings towards T.Y. Hilton. I think he can still play. I think he can still play productive football,” Ballard told the media Friday.
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With right guard Mark Glowinski leaving for the New York Giants, Pinter, a fifth-round pick of the Colts in 2020, stands to take over the job in 2022. Pinter posted a solid overall PFF grade of 74.7 in 2021.
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During what is usually a time for optimism ahead of the draft, Jaguars Wire’s Zachary Huber believes there are three reasons to be concerned about the Jaguars’ 2022 NFL draft — and all of them have to do with GM Trent Baalke.
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The contract the Jaguars gave Kirk certainly didn’t help other NFL teams with wide receivers to sign. Kirk went into more detail recently in an interview with CBS Sports.
“And yeah, I was one of the first ones and people want to say I shook up the market. But in my opinion, things like that were going to happen regardless, but it definitely feels good to be able to, I guess maybe take that first step for the position and kind of advocate for us to be considered to be one of the highest-paid positions in the league.”
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According to Jacksonville’s general manager, the Jaguars have narrowed down their potential No. 1 overall pick options to just four players, but he also notes it’s still a “work in progress” for Jacksonville.
Jaguars GM Trent Baalke later says they have 4 players in consideration for the No.1 overall pick. He won’t reveal who or what positions. Gotta figure Aiden Hutchinson, Travon Walker & at least one of OTs are among the group.
— Cameron Wolfe (@CameronWolfe) April 22, 2022
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Texans Wire’s John Hunter Crumpler takes a look at general manager Nick Caserio’s past and tries to formulate what the Texans’ 2022 NFL draft strategy could be.
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Houston’s general manager doesn’t believe there will be many teams interested in the Texans’ No. 3 overall pick, making it difficult to trade.
“The reality is probably very few teams are going to want to come up to No. 3, just being honest,” said Caserio. “That’s okay. So probably pick at No. 3, and then No. 13, could we go up, could we go down? Over the next week or so, you’re going to talk to different teams more about positioning, about what’s their philosophy, about what’s their willingness to move.”
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Like every other team, the Texans will turn their attention to undrafted free agents following the 2022 NFL draft, which is something Caserio spoke about recently.
“You really want to try to establish a little bit of a relationship or a rapport with the player so that first time that you reach out to the player isn’t after the draft or on Saturday,” Caserio said. “Look, the reality is there are only so many players that are going to get drafted, 200 and however many slots there are, there’s more players than that in the draft. There’s a number of players who aren’t going to get drafted and there’s going to end up being some pretty good players who for whatever reason don’t get drafted.”