Jaguars
Jaguars GM James Gladstone sees a lot of similarities between his time in Los Angeles and Jacksonville. Gladstone believes the addition of HC Liam Coen and what he’s learned with the Rams will help Jacksonville usher in a quick turnaround.
“I see a lot of parallels to my time with the Los Angeles Rams and the current moment in time here with the Jacksonville Jaguars,” Gladstone said, via PFT. “In particular, dating back to sort of the inflection point in 2017 when the Los Angeles Rams were coming off a four-win season, hired a dynamic and resilient head coach and were able to follow that up with a successful season and successful seasons since. Really gonna tap into all of those years of experience and the different modes of operation and models we deployed while applying here.”
Jaguars
Jaguars owner Shad Khan said he has no concerns about the lack of experience regarding the team’s new leadership group.
“I think collectively they’re going to have great success,” Khan said, via the team’s website. “We’re all aware that they’re new, but a huge amount of the potential to really grow into it. I couldn’t be more excited, frankly. I think the brainpower, the bandwidth, the different experience, are really complementary. This is a team of football people, executives who are going to be successful. This isn’t about, ‘Hey, I’ve got X years of experience in something.’ A lot of times it turns out to be one year of experience X times over. I just think the brain matter here is going to be great for the Jaguars.”
Texans
Texans pass rusher Dylan Horton and HC DeMeco Ryans spoke about Horton’s return from Stage 4 Hodgkin’s lymphoma after weight loss, night sweats, and inflammation prompted him to receive a scan from team doctors.
“I was losing weight throughout camp, a lot of weight, as an athlete who wants to make sure I’m keeping that up, and it was a lot more than usual,” Horton told Aaron Wilson of KPRC 2. “It was clear that it was something we should keep an eye on…Once we saw it was lymphoma, we addressed it and made a plan. I couldn’t do this alone, at all. I have so many people to thank for my health.”
“I feel like it’s easy to reciprocate coming up the facility where everybody is positive,” Horton added. “It’s easy to reciprocate that energy and it’s always easy to spread positivity when it’s around you. I had my family, and my friends around while I was going through everything. Especially coming to the facility, just having that routine, having those people around me who believed in me and just loving me.”
“Exciting to see Dylan, he stepped in, he set the edge really well,” Ryans said of Horton’s return. “He got after the quarterback. Dylan did a really nice job. I keep saying an awesome story, but he is an awesome young man and he is a pleasure to work with, pleasure to be around, such a great spirit. It is so encouraging and motivating to see him go out, missing as much time as he did, but he was still able to come in and affect the game. He made a really nice play where he set the edge, got off a block and made a physical tackle on the running backs. It was one of the first plays I showed the team and everybody just clapping for him, excited for Dylan.”
The post AFC Notes: James Gladstone, Dylan Horton, Shad Khan, Jaguars, Texans appeared first on NFLTradeRumors.co.