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AFC Notes: Travis Hunter, Michael Pittman, Colts, Jaguars, Texans
Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Colts

Michael Pittman has the benefit of working with Colts receivers coach and former All-Pro Reggie Wayne. Pittman said he talks with Wayne about a lot of coverage scenarios and different tips to use.  

“We just talk about different scenarios, coverages,” Pittman said, via Mike Chappell of Fox59. “Like, ‘Hey, if he shows this, do that.’ Just tips.”

Pierce said he and Wayne bounce a lot of ideas off each other, and he’s helping him get into the “fine details” of route running. 

“Yeah, it’s great,” Pierce said. “I like to find him and just kind of get a little bit of advice on a play that already happened or is going to happen. He might come to me with, ‘Hey, we have this play coming up. We are kind of anticipating this look. You might want to try this.’ So, we’ve kind of been getting into more the fine details of route running and stuff like that. Being in year four, I know the play. I know where to line up, so now I’ve got a lot more opportunities to really get into these fine details. That’s not going to be too much for me to handle if he kind of tells me, ‘I might want you to change this one thing up here and try this and see how it works.’”

Wayne said he takes an honest approach with players and tries to hold them accountable while cheering on their successes. 

“I tell them the truth, and they’ll tell ya,” Wayne said. “When they do well, I praise them. When they don’t do well, I’m on their ass. That’s the way it goes. I’m not about to sugarcoat anything. And I think they appreciate that. When they go out there and perform, I’m their biggest cheerleader. And when they do bad, I’m their biggest hater.”

Jaguars

Jaguars HC Liam Coen was pleased with WR/CB Travis Hunter‘s performance in Week 1 of the preseason, mentioning that he made good decisions on a few option routes they called for him. 

“I think he made a couple good catches on some option routes, missed the one tackle defensively that I noticed,” Coen said, via Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated. “That was the only thing I noticed about his overall play. In terms of that, I’ll have to watch the tape on how he operated defensively a little bit more, but I thought offensively he made the right decisions on those option routes, made a good catch, almost broke out of that one where Trevor [Lawrence] put it behind him on that third down we talked about. But I’ll have to go watch the tape a little bit more to know more.”

Texans

Texans HC DeMeco Ryans was impressed by WR John Metchie, who showed up in the first preseason game as he competes for a spot in the receivers group. Metchie missed his rookie season due to leukemia and has only played in 29 games, grabbing 40 passes for 412 yards and a touchdown so far in his career.

“All our receivers did a really nice job, John Metchie showed up,” Ryans said, via Aaron Wilson of KPRC 2 Houston. “A ton of different guys showing up, so they’re still, you know, we got a really full room of guys there who can play in the NFL, so it’s tight competition going down to the wire.”

“It was good, it was good to get out there,” Metchie noted, after leading the team in receiving in the loss to the Vikings. “It was good to play against somebody else. It’s more of a process thing rather than just a single day, not just, of course, on gameday, but it’s more of a process than how you show up every day, how consistent you can be.”

“Just showing up, everybody brings their best every day and we all uplift each other,” Metchie added. “On days you’re not feeling it, the guys will uplift you. On days, the guys aren’t feeling well, that’s kind of our culture. We kind of band together. You talk about that competition in the room, but everybody likes each other, everybody wants to get better, everybody just kind of helping each other.”

This article first appeared on NFLTradeRumors.co and was syndicated with permission.

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