Colts
Colts QB Philip Rivers admitted that he was anticipating a call from HC Shane Steichen after watching QB Daniel Jones go down with an Achilles injury.
“I saw the injury live,” Rivers said, via ESPN. “I feel terrible for Daniel … And I have to admit, I thought, ‘Well, I wonder if Shane will call.‘”
Steichen said that Rivers was all-in when he received the call for one final ride with the team.
“I said, ‘What do you think?‘” Steichen recalled. “He said, ‘Dadgummit, let’s freaking go.”
Rivers said that picking back up the physical aspect of the game will be one of his biggest challenges.
“I’m trying to pick it back up,” he said. “I’ve still been very into it since I’ve been gone [coaching high school and training draft prospects]. But, yeah, it is a physical game and it’s fast and dudes are big and fast, just like they were. So, shoot, you take it a day at a time. And I do feel good. There’s something about being back in this building that feels right and I’m just thankful.”
Rivers added that pushing back his clock on the Hall of Fame never crossed his mind when making a decision.
“I’m not holding my breath on that, and I hadn’t been counting down the years and with all respect to the Hall,” he said. “If one day I can be a part of that group, it will be special. No question about it. But the extension of that time, if that comes to be, was not a factor in my thinking.”
Jaguars
Jaguars WR Jakobi Meyers has been impressive since being acquired by the Raiders, recording 22 receptions for 284 yards and three touchdowns since coming aboard. Jacksonville QB Trevor Lawrence praised Meyer’s ability to understand coverages and opposing defenses.
“Yeah, I think just his general understanding of the game and the way he processes things. It makes sense that he played quarterback, just the way he is able to talk about different routes, different zone coverages, his feel for different zones. He’s a really smart player and he understands defenses and I think that definitely I’m sure is some credit to that is playing quarterback as you do have to understand those things. So, we’ve talked a little bit, joked about it. I think I played against him one time when he was at N.C. State in 2018. That was his last year. So, we’ve talked about it a little bit,” Lawrence said, via Andy Quach of SI.
Titans
Titans QB Cam Ward said he’s trying to keep himself and his team to a high standard, and feels there were moments from Week 14’s win over the Browns that they can improve on.
“There’s a way to win games and there’s a way to finish out games,” Ward said, via Jim Wyatt of the team’s site. “There’s a standard that you’ve got to play with every game to give yourself the best situation to win. But the biggest thing is you’ve got to expect to win every time you step on the field. We played to a standard (this past Sunday) good enough to win. We didn’t play to our best standard. At times of the game, we’re sloppy. Offensively, I was sloppy myself. And then defensively, we were, so we just got to continue to emphasize the good and we got to be real critical on the bad.”
Ward is focused on limiting bad plays and continuing to take positive steps forward.
“I mean if you want to be a good player, you can’t be satisfied with doing bad things,” Ward said. “You want to be able to be a great player each and every play. And no matter how good the quarterback is or how bad—he’s always going to have a bad play at some point within a game, whether it’s a bad read, a bad pass or something. But the more you can limit it, the better position you put your teammates in. It’s really more just about trying to take steps forward. And I think just the more—if you take a step forward or you go backward, you really stay in the same spot. So, our goal this week is to win a game, try to get on a little win streak. So the more we win, I think the more steps we’ll take forward.”
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