AFC South

New Houston Texans head coach Lovie Smith isn't looking to let any uncertainty about Deshaun Watson's future with the team to drag on throughout the offseason.

Smith told The MMQB's Albert Breer he wants the matter resolved "as soon as possible":

I’m not running away from the question, but as soon as possible. There are things that need to be taken care of before the football part comes into play. We’re patient, we’ve waited an entire year and I just feel like this offseason, it’ll come to an end and we’ll get it solved and it’ll be good for both parties, whatever that might be. There’s no other answer to give right now except for that one, and we’re going to try to get it resolved as soon as we possibly can.

Watson remains the subject of 22 lawsuits tied to allegations of sexual assault and misconduct. Ten women have also filed criminal complaints with Houston police.

While the NFL has yet to levy any suspension against the three-time Pro Bowler, he missed the entire 2021 season after the allegations surfaced.

In October, the Houston Chronicle's John McClain reported the Miami Dolphins had agreed to the general structure of a trade involving Watson. However, Dolphins owner Stephen Ross wanted more clarity on the quarterback's off-field situation before the deal would become final.

The sexual assault allegations came against the backdrop of strife between Watson and the Texans. ESPN's Adam Schefter reported in January 2021 he had requested to be traded, another sign of Houston's backslide into irrelevance.

It stands to reason that Watson's days with the team are numbered once his legal matters are concluded.

Davis Mills started 11 games as a rookie with Watson unavailable in 2021. He threw for 2,664 yards, 16 touchdowns and 10 interceptions while completing 66.8 percent of his passes.

Smith said last week on Good Morning Football (via Chase Goodbread of NFL.com) that Mills "played about as well as any of the rookie quarterbacks did last year," and he echoed that sentiment to Breer.

"So everyone wants to talk about the quarterback; I like him," said Smith, who was Houston's associate head coach and defensive coordinator last season. "I like his demeanor, how smart he is, and I like that he and [promoted offensive coordinator] Pep Hamilton have been together for a year already. Those things should help us."

Smith added, though, that Mills won't have an unassailable lead on the starting job if a QB competition opens this offseason.

Former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores will reportedly alter his lawsuit against the NFL, Dolphins, Denver Broncos and New York Giants to include a retaliation claim against the Houston Texans for not hiring him, according to ProFootballTalk's Mike Florio. 

Flores was reportedly a finalist for the Texans' head coaching position, but the franchise opted to hire defensive coordinator Lovie Smith instead. 

Florio writes:

"Common sense suggests that the Texans realized they couldn’t hire unproven and inexperienced Josh McCown, and they wouldn’t hire Flores. Smith became the compromise candidate, arguably thrown into the mix late to allow the Texans to avoid hiring Flores."

On Feb. 1, ESPN's Marcel Louis-Jacques reported Flores' lawsuit against the NFL and several of its teams. Before adding the Texans to the lawsuit, Flores alleged discrimination in his interview process with the Broncos and Giants, and in his firing by the Dolphins. 

Flores also alleges that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross attempted to bribe him to lose games on purpose after he was hired in 2019. Flores alleges that Ross offered him $100,000 for every loss during the 2019 campaign. 

The Dolphins opened the 2019 season with seven straight losses but won five of their last nine games. They ended with the fifth overall pick in the 2020 NFL draft and selected Tua Tagovailoa. Flores said that Dolphins general manager Chris Grier told him Ross was upset that the team's late wins were "compromising [the team's] draft position."

Flores also listed other allegations against Ross, including saying he was "treated with disdain and held out as someone who was noncompliant and difficult to work with."

The Dolphins fired Flores on Jan. 10 despite the 40-year-old leading the team to back-to-back winning seasons and going 24-25 overall. 

As for the Giants, Flores alleged the franchise only interviewed him to satisfy the Rooney Rule, which requires teams to interview minority candidates for vacant coaching positions. In addition, Flores alleged that in 2019, former Broncos general manager John Elway arrived to his interview hungover. 

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell recently admitted during a news conference that the league must do better in its interviewing and hiring process.

“We believe in diversity. We believe it has made us stronger. People who have come into the league who are diverse have been very successful and made us better, and we just have to do a better job. ... Is there another thing that we can do to make sure that we’re attracting the best talent and making our league more inclusive? If I had the answer right now, I would give it to you. I would have implemented it.

I think we have to continue to look and find and step back and say, 'We're not doing a good enough job here.' We need to find better solutions and better outcomes. Let's find more effective policies. Let's make sure everyone understands. Let's make sure that we're looking at diversity and incentivizing that for everybody in our building.

However, those comments came after Goodell said Flores' allegations were "without merit." 

Carson Wentz's tenure as starting quarterback of the Indianapolis Colts reportedly may be set to come to an end after just one season.

According to ESPN's Chris Mortensen (h/t Ari Meirov of Pro Football Focus), the Colts will "probably" trade or release Wentz before March 19, when his $15 million base salary becomes fully guaranteed.

Mortensen added that Wentz's future in Indianapolis looks "bleak."

While Wentz didn't have a terrible statistical season in 2021, the campaign ended in disappointment for the Colts, as they lost their final two games of the season, finished 9-8 and missed the playoffs.

If the Colts do move on from Wentz, the final nail in his coffin may have been a 26-11 Week 18 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars. All the Colts needed to do in order to make the playoffs was beat a Jags team that went 3-14, but Wentz and Co. couldn't get it done.

Wentz was originally the No. 2 overall pick in the 2016 NFL draft by the Philadelphia Eagles, and early in his career, it looked like he was destined for superstardom.

In 2017, Wentz was the front-runner for the NFL MVP Award before tearing his ACL late in the season. Philly still won the Super Bowl without Wentz that year, as Nick Foles filled in and led the Eagles to a championship.

Wentz was never the same player after that injury, and things truly came crashing down in 2020.

In 12 starts that season, Wentz went 3-8-1 and completed 57.4 percent of his passes for 2,620 yards, 16 touchdowns and an NFL-high 15 interceptions.

Wentz lost his starting job to then-rookie Jalen Hurts, and the Eagles decided to move on from Wentz during the offseason, trading him to Indy for a 2021 third-round pick and 2022 first-round pick.

There was some hope that Wentz's career could be resurrected by reuniting him with Colts head coach Frank Reich, who was Wentz's offensive coordinator in Philadelphia when he enjoyed his greatest success.

Wentz largely leaned on superstar running back Jonathan Taylor and a strong defense, and things looked good for a while, as the Colts were 9-6 and in ideal position to make the playoffs.

Back-to-back losses to the Las Vegas Raiders and Jaguars ruined their playoff hopes, though, and Wentz has been viewed as one of the biggest scapegoats for the team's shortcomings.

Overall, Wentz did have a much better season in 2021 than he did 2020, completing 62.4 percent of his passes for 3,563 yards, 27 touchdowns and just seven interceptions.

Wentz simply wasn't good enough late in the season, though, throwing just 10 touchdown passes in the team's final eight games and throwing for more than 225 yards in a game just once during that stretch.

The Colts won a lot of games by running the football and playing strong defense, but the NFL is still a quarterback-driven league, and Wentz didn't perform at a high enough level.

There are several quarterback-needy teams in search of an answer at the position this offseason, however, and since a team can cut him after the 2022 campaign while incurring no dead cap space, per Spotrac, it is possible another team will take a chance on him if the Colts decide to move on.  

Tennessee Titans running back Derrick Henry believes Ryan Tannehill will come back better in 2022 after a poor performance in the team's 19-16 playoff loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. 

Speaking to Mike Florio and Chris Simms on PFT Live, Henry said Tannehill will use that game as "fuel" for next season:

One game doesn’t define a player. It’s not just one person playing out there by himself. It’s a team effort. Things like that happens sometimes. At the end of the day, I know who Ryan is. I know the type of player that he is that he’s going to let that fuel him and not get down on himself. We’re all back and we’re all behind him. We’re all going to stick together and come back better.

Expectations were high for the Titans coming into the playoffs. They earned the No. 1 seed in the AFC with a 12-5 record, despite needing to use an NFL-record 91 players in games during the regular season because of injuries. 

Things went awry for Tennessee right from the start of its divisional-round game against Cincinnati. Tannehill threw an interception on the first play of the game. He was picked off a total of three times, including one at the Bengals' 9-yard line on a quick screen intended for Chester Rogers that Mike Hilton hauled in after tipping the ball into the air. 

Tannehill's final interception came with 28 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter to set up Evan McPherson's game-winning 52-yard field goal for Cincinnati as time expired. 

The three turnovers in the AFC divisional round for Tannehill were as many as he had in the previous six games combined dating back to Week 12. 

Mike Vrabel has been honored as the NFL's Coach of the Year for the 2021 season.

The 46-year-old is the first in Tennessee Titans history to receive the award. This comes after they finished 12-5 and earned the top seed in the AFC playoff field.

Entering the year, a 12-win season and an AFC South title wouldn't have felt like monumental achievements for the franchise. The Titans went 11-5 and clinched a division title in 2020 and reached the AFC Championship Game in 2019.

But Tennessee's season wasn't looking good after Derrick Henry suffered a foot injury in a Week 8 win over the Indianapolis Colts. That was the star running back's last appearance of the regular season.

To that point, Henry had run for 937 yards and 10 touchdowns, not only putting him on pace to lead the NFL in rushing for the third straight year but also insert him into the MVP discussion.

Without Henry in the backfield, the Titans still won six of their final nine games. D'Onta Foreman and Dontrell Hilliard combined to run for 916 yards and five touchdowns over that stretch.

Henry wasn't the only notable player to miss time, either. A.J. Brown and Julio Jones were unavailable for stretches. Taylor Lewan missed four games. Kevin Byard, Harold Landry and Jeffery Simmons were the only players on defense to start all 17 games.

By November, Tennessee had already used more players (86) over a single season than any other team in NFL history.

Things could've unraveled when the Titans dropped their second straight game—a 36-13 loss to the New England Patriots—heading into the Week 13 bye. Instead, they returned to action with a shutout of the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Under no circumstances do you want to give Vrabel and his staff more time to draw up a game plan.

Mike Vrabel & the Titans on 8+ days rest are scary 👇 pic.twitter.com/x0JwHzQGr3

— CBS Sports HQ (@CBSSportsHQ) January 19, 2022

In terms of outperforming preseason expectations, the Cincinnati Bengals' Zac Taylor might have exceeded Vrabel. His team won 10 games and claimed its first AFC North title since 2015.

But using that as the sole barometer in the Coach of the Year race ignores the number of hurdles that were thrown in Vrabel's way. He unquestionably did enough to put himself atop the field.

Titans running back Derrick Henry is in Los Angeles for Sunday's Super Bowl between the Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals, and, understandably, Tennessee's divisional-round loss isn't sitting well with him.

Speaking with Jim Wyatt of the team’s website, Henry said he's still "not over the fact" the Titans lost to the Bengals after they earned a first-round bye with a 12-5 record. 

“I am pissed off about it, and I will be pissed off about it,” Henry said. “... I can’t wait to play football again.”  

Henry added:

“When I see anything about football, whether I am watching TV or see something on my phone about football, it brings that sick feeling back. While I’m here, you just have to deal with it the best you can. It still hurts.

“I am still not over the fact that we lost, and we’re not here. It will replay in my head until we get back to football, which is going to be a while. But yeah, it still replays in my head every single day. I wanted [to win the Super Bowl] bad, and I know all of my teammates wanted it bad. Everybody was shocked when we lost. So that will be in my head until I am able to strap up again and play in a game.”

Henry appeared in Tennessee's first eight games before undergoing surgery after suffering a broken bone in his foot. He didn't return for the remainder of the regular season and appeared in the Titans' 19-16 loss to the Bengals with a steel plate in his foot. 

The 28-year-old was ineffective in that game, rushing for just 62 yards and a touchdown on 20 carries. However, the loss wasn't blamed on Henry. 

A lot of the blame fell on Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill, who completed just 15 of 24 passes for 220 yards, one touchdown and three interceptions. 

Despite the disappointing exit, the Titans have a lot to look forward to in 2022. Henry, who rushed for 937 yards and 10 touchdowns in 2021, should again be one of the NFL's best backs.

Tannehill, who has revived his career in Tennessee after six underwhelming seasons with the Miami Dolphins, will be back for at least one more shot at a Super Bowl title, as his contract runs through 2023 but carries a potential out after next season. In addition, wide receiver A.J. Brown and much of the Titans offense will return.  

There is some confusion about a recent political filing that shows Tony Khan, AEW president and co-owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars, is running for Congress. 

Documents from the Federal Election Commission suggest Khan has filed to run for the House of Representatives in Florida's 4th congressional district. 

Khan took to Twitter to deny that he is getting involved in politics and used a famous wrestling angle involving Eddie Gilbert and Tommy Rich to emphasize his point:

The fact checking standard for @ProFootballTalk reporting is far lower than that of @AEW’s roving reporter @tonyschiavone24. I’m definitely not running for Congress; this filing is faker than Eddie Gilbert’s apology to Tommy Rich in 1984. PFT sources as trustworthy as @The_MJF. https://t.co/HPdU53GrfY

— Tony Khan (@TonyKhan) February 10, 2022

The filing with Khan's name had him running for the seat that is currently held by Republican John Rutherford. 

Rutherford was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 2016. He assumed office in January 2017. The 69-year-old was re-elected in 2018 and 2020. He has defeated Democratic challengers by an average of 32.5 percentage points. 

Per BallotPedia.com, Al Robertson is the only Democrat currently in the race for Florida's 4th Congressional District. The 2022 primary will be held on Aug. 23. 

The winner of the primary will take on Rutherford in the general election on Nov. 8.    

Son of Jaguars owner Shad Khan, Tony has made a name for himself in the entertainment world as the founder of All Elite Wrestling. The promotion has had a rapid ascent since its launch in 2019 to become the No. 2 wrestling organization in the United States, behind WWE. 

AEW has two weekly primetime shows—Dynamite on Wednesdays and Rampage on Fridays. September's All Out pay-per-view became the first non-WWE show to generate at least 200,000 buys since 1999. 

Shad Khan has owned the Jaguars since 2012. Tony works with the organization as senior vice president of football technology and analytics. 

Trevor Lawrence will team up with Doug Pederson on the Jacksonville Jaguars this year, and he's ready to run his new head coach's most famous play. 

"I hope so," Lawrence told Bleacher Report with a laugh when asked if he is going to get to run the Philly Special that Pederson called during the Philadelphia Eagles' Super Bowl LII win over the New England Patriots. "Maybe we'll dress it up a little bit differently. Who knows. That would be awesome."

While he doesn't know who will throw him the ball like Trey Burton did to Nick Foles, he knows it won't be former Clemson teammate Travis Etienne Jr.

"He threw me a couple in college, and it wasn't great," he joked.

Philly Special.#SBLII | #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/UGN0hTRYrr

— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) February 6, 2018

Perfecting the Philly Special may take some practice, but the presence of Pederson should be quite the boost for Lawrence heading into his second season in the NFL. After all, Pederson has an offensive background from his time as a quarterbacks coach for the Eagles and an offensive coordinator for the Kansas City Chiefs even before he was the head coach in Philadelphia.

He went 42-37-1 and reached the playoffs three times as Philadelphia's head coach from 2016 through 2020. The Super Bowl win during the 2017 campaign saw Pederson maximize his quarterbacks with Carson Wentz playing like an MVP candidate before Foles took over and outdueled Tom Brady following the starter's torn ACL.

"I haven't watched a ton of their tape yet. I think going back and watching some of those games in Philly will be big," Lawrence said. "They had a lot of success offensively, early with Carson and then when Carson got hurt and Nick Foles came in they ended up winning the Super Bowl and still kept it rolling. That's impressive from a coaching standpoint for your starting quarterback, who was an MVP candidate at that point of the season, for him to get hurt and for them to still be able to win the Super Bowl is pretty impressive. I think that says a lot about Coach Pederson and that staff."

It comes as no surprise then that Jacksonville targeted Pederson, who was also a quarterback himself before coaching, given how important it will be for the franchise that Lawrence fulfills his potential as the No. 1 pick of the 2021 NFL draft.

Their relationship already got off to a great start when Lawrence welcomed his new coach to Jacksonville with some ice cream:

Y’all… 🥲🍦 https://t.co/4vBTPwTltj pic.twitter.com/UBxXXfj9mL

— Jacksonville Jaguars (@Jaguars) February 5, 2022

"Being able to talk to him on the phone, and I met him in person last week, I really like him," the quarterback said. "I think his personality fits well with mine. I think we're going to get along great. Just talking a little bit about football, I can tell he's really smart and knows what he's doing. So I'm really excited to learn this new offense and get going."

There's nowhere to get going but up for the Jaguars after a 3-14 campaign that featured plenty of adversity. 

Etienne was lost for the year to injury before he even played a game, and wide receiver DJ Chark Jr. suffered a season-ending injury after just four games. As if losing his weapons wasn't a big enough challenge for the young signal-caller, head coach Urban Meyer was fired after a 2-11 start and a saga of headlines that included allegations he kicked former kicker Josh Lambo and video circulating of a woman who wasn't his wife dancing on him at a bar.

Those were far from easy circumstances for a rookie quarterback, and Lawrence struggled at times while completing 59.6 percent of his passes for 3,641 yards, 12 touchdowns and 17 interceptions.

However, he ended on a high note while leading the Jaguars to a victory over the Indianapolis Colts that knocked their division rivals out of the playoffs.

"I learned a lot," he said. "Obviously it wasn't an easy year. There were some good things that happened but a lot of challenges and a lot of adversity. Learning how to deal with that and trying to be consistent and be the same person every day is something that was really challenging this year because of all the uncertainty. Not winning a lot of games and trying to be that same guy every day, I learned a lot about myself. I'm really proud of the way we finished, and I think that's something to build on next year with the way we played in that last game."

His next game after the Colts win didn't come on an NFL field but at Lafayette Park in Los Angeles.

Lawrence partnered with Gatorade and fellow athletes J.J. Watt, DK Metcalf, Robert Woods and Todd Gurley to join Los Angeles children in a flag football game as part of an initiative to make sports more accessible for youth.

The Gatorade athletes joined Laureus USA—which strives to use the power of sport to "end violence, discrimination and disadvantage against young people and children"—and the Woodcraft Rangers—which helps youth in Los Angeles through different experiences, programs and initiatives—to provide a grant to cover field cost times until 2024 for local children.

"It was just fun being out there with the kids," he said. "Gatorade is doing some really awesome things in the community, and it's great being able to be a part of that. ... Giving back to the community is important to me and my wife [Marissa]. That's something we love to be a part of. Really glad we were able to be here today. It's really cool seeing those kids, and the impact sports has on those kids is really special, so it was a lot of fun."

While Lawrence is making an impact with his work off the field, he will be expected to make a second-year jump on it in 2022.

That is especially true after he played a full 17-game schedule as a rookie ahead of what should be more franchise stability with a Super Bowl champion and veteran coach in Pederson instead of Meyer.

"There's a lot of things I want to get better at," he said. "The biggest things when you look at the game: I want to work on my accuracy, consistency and then just the way I play the game. I thought as the year went on I got a lot better, but that's such a big part of the NFL that is different from college, the situational football is so much more important. Every game comes down to one or two possessions, so you just really have to take advantage of them. And then just consistency, there's a lot of games where I played really well in the first half and didn't play great in the second half, or vice versa. Playing more complete games and giving us the best chance to win. Those are things I really want to work on and improve on this year."

The perfect blueprint for doing just that will take the field during Sunday's Super Bowl.

After all, Lawrence and Joe Burrow will always be connected considering they faced each other during the College Football Playoff National Championship Game to end the 2019 campaign and were No. 1 overall picks in back-to-back years in 2020 and 2021.

Burrow's rookie season was also far from ideal considering he suffered a torn ACL, but he made quite the second-year leap and led the Cincinnati Bengals all the way to the sport's biggest stage by defeating Patrick Mahomes in the AFC Championship Game.

"It's really impressive what he's doing, really cool to watch," Lawrence said. "That's obviously a positive thing for me looking at that. The changes they made, the improvements they made in one year is really unbelievable. ... That's obviously the plan. Every situation is different, but that's the goal is to make it to the Super Bowl and win the Super Bowl. For us, who knows how fast that will be. We have a lot of improvements to make, but I know we can make a lot of them rather quickly. So I'm excited to just get back and go to work on those things we can improve on. I know it's going to be a much better year this year."

Perhaps it will be Lawrence's turn to take the football world by storm in his second season in 2022.

The Tennessee Titans announced Tuesday that head coach Mike Vrabel and general manager Jon Robinson have been rewarded with contract extensions after the team finished as the AFC's No. 1 seed in 2021.

Vrabel and Robinson were set to enter the last year of their contracts in the 2022 season. The lengths of the extensions were not specified.

Vrabel was named Coach of the Year by the Pro Football Writers of America this past season after leading Tennessee to a 12-5 record, a third consecutive trip to the playoffs and a second straight AFC South title. The Titans were eliminated in the divisional round by the AFC champion Cincinnati Bengals on a last-second field goal.

"I am proud to say that Jon and Mike will be leading our football team for years to come," Titans owner Amy Adams Strunk said. "I have seen the team improve on a yearly basis under their direction, and I know their singular goal is to deliver a championship for our fans."

She added, "Together they have developed a culture within our organization that has been essential to our success. Their values align with mine and what I want the Titans to be."

Vrabel has coached Tennessee and has a career record of 43-27, including playoff games, for a franchise-best winning percentage of .614. His 43 wins tie Jack Pardee's franchise record through his first four years with the organization.

Since Robinson was hired as general manager in 2016, Tennessee has had a winning record every year. His draft record has been stellar, as he oversaw the selection of eventual Pro Bowlers Derrick Henry, A.J. Brown, Kevin Byard, Jeffery Simmons and Harold Landry. Robinson's 62 wins as GM rank second in franchise history.

Houston Texans general manager Nick Caserio said Brian Flores' lawsuit against the NFL and three teams alleging racial discrimination didn't affect his candidacy for the team's head coaching vacancy.

Caserio was asked about Flores, a finalist for the Texans' job before they promoted Lovie Smith on Monday, during a press conference Tuesday:

https://twitter.com/riversmccown/status/1491100162198024198

The comments come after Flores' attorneys, Douglas H. Wigdor and John Elefterakis, said in a statement Monday night their client wasn't selected because of the litigation:

Statement from Brian Flores’ attorneys Douglas H. Wigdor and John Elefterakis on the Texans hiring Lovie Smith. pic.twitter.com/gCAzWDh5i0

— Daniel Oyefusi (@DanielOyefusi) February 8, 2022

Flores' lawsuit included direct claims against three teams—the Denver Broncos, Miami Dolphins and New York Giants—related to their hiring practices. Flores was fired by the Dolphins in January despite back-to-back winning seasons.

The NFL initially released a statement saying the allegations were "without merit," but commissioner Roger Goodell sent out a memo Saturday stating the league "[understands] the concerns expressed" by Flores:

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell just sent this memo to clubs, saying the league is retaining outside experts to help reevaluate its DEI policies and matters regarding integrity of the game will be “reviewed thoroughly and independently” in light of allegations from Brian Flores. pic.twitter.com/VUK2dm0MMe

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) February 5, 2022

Houston's selection of Smith finished the NFL's latest head coach hiring cycle with just two of the nine available jobs going to people of color: Smith and the Miami Dolphins' Mike McDaniel. They join the Pittsburgh Steelers' Mike Tomlin, Washington Commanders' Ron Rivera and New York Jets' Robert Saleh.

Caserio didn't delve into why Flores wasn't the team's final choice but said he's "been a good coach in this league for a number of years."

Flores, 40, spent 11 years in different roles on the New England Patriots' coaching staff before being hired by the Dolphins. He'd previously spent time in the Pats' scouting department.

He posted a 24-25 record across three years in Miami during his first stint as a head coach.