{"id":943983,"date":"2026-07-13T00:39:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T00:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/943983\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T00:39:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T00:39:15","slug":"afc-notes-reed-blankenship-brian-thomas-jr-jaguars-texans-titans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/943983\/","title":{"rendered":"AFC Notes: Reed Blankenship, Brian Thomas Jr., Jaguars, Texans, Titans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated<\/a> names Jaguars WR Brian Thomas<\/a> Jr. as one player to watch in training camp as a \u201cswing factor\u201d after a productive rookie season in 2024 before struggling last season.\u00a0
\nAccording to Breer, Jacksonville never considered \u201cselling low\u201d on Thomas after his sophomore slump.\u00a0
\nBreer writes that Thomas has had a \u201cconstant presence\u201d at the team\u2019s facility this offseason and is spending as much time as possible with QB Trevor Lawrence<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Texans S Reed Blankenship<\/a> spoke in depth about his experience joining a strong defense and the role he expects to play in his first season in Houston.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got a call from DeMeco and hearing what he had to say, I could tell that he wanted me, and I could tell that he really liked me as a player,\u201d Blankenship said after joining the Texans, via Click2Houston.com<\/a>. \u201cObviously, we haven\u2019t met, but I feel like he knows what my character is and what my personality is. You could tell that he really wanted me and really liked me. After we hung up, I was with my wife and I\u2019m like, \u2018I really feel like Houston really wants me.\u2019 That honestly felt like the first time in my whole NFL career that somebody really wanted me as a player and as a person. \u201cHe was just being real, obviously just being your authentic self. He was just telling me about the building, about the place, what they\u2019re building. I was already bought in, honestly, and I really loved everything he had to say. I don\u2019t need a lot of peer pressure, but it was really cool to hear what he had to say. Obviously, I feel like I landed in a great spot. It\u2019s a different sort of edge to my career. I feel like I\u2019m going to have a lot of fun down in Houston.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWatching Houston fly around at times, I\u2019m like, \u2018Dang, this defense is legit,\u2019\u201d Blankenship continued. \u201cFast forward, it\u2019s crazy that a team like that wants me to come in and to perform at a high level. It speaks volumes. Coming into this defense, I feel like I can give everybody a sense of calmness. I want to be the communicator out there. I don\u2019t want to step on anybody\u2019s toes at all, but I want everybody just to play free. Play free, have fun and at the end of the day, just go and hit dudes. I\u2019ve always been coached like an old school type coach. I\u2019ve been born and raised to go run and hit dudes for a living. I know there\u2019s a bunch of dogs in the secondary, linebackers, defensive line, everywhere. I\u2019m super stoked for this. I\u2019m just ready to build that relationship between all the levels.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re already a really talented group,\u201d Blankenship concluded. \u201cThere shouldn\u2019t be any fall-off. That\u2019s my mindset. I feel like the sky\u2019s the limit for this secondary, for sure. I know all these guys are bought in. Why wouldn\u2019t you want to be? They all want to win. We have a winning mindset. I can already feel that in the building. Honestly, I\u2019ve never been the big rah-rah guy. When I got voted captain, I believe that was sort of my job and opportunity to get these guys going, especially for a guy who\u2019s been in that room. They want to hear a voice. I\u2019m not the rah-rah guy, but when I step on the field, it\u2019s this different type of emotion. My adrenaline starts going and I just flip a switch. My wife can definitely tell you all, probably in detail, that during gameday, I rarely even talk to her. I\u2019m just locked in. There\u2019s a certain time that I just can\u2019t talk to anybody. I dedicate the whole day to going out and trying to get a W.\u201d<\/p>\n

Titans first-round DE Keldric Faulk outlined what it\u2019s like to have an elite DT in Jeffery Simmons<\/a> as a resource during his first professional offseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust coming to the sideline and getting his perspective on things he\u2019s seen that I could do better as far as when the O-lineman jump set me and I got a good get off,\u201d Faulk said, via ESPN\u2019s Turron Davenport<\/a>. \u201cHe told me I got to be able to plant that foot in the ground and come back inside on him. It\u2019s things like that where I couldn\u2019t see myself on the field that he sees.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking for the latest NFL Insider News & Rumors?<\/p>\n

Be sure to follow NFL Trade Rumors<\/a> on X.com<\/a>\u00a0and FACEBOOK<\/a>\u00a0for breaking NFL News and Rumors for all 32 teams!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated names Jaguars WR Brian Thomas Jr. as one player to watch in training…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":834268,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2056],"tags":[4133,7,221,253,2368,10563,5386,6,9716,222,314],"class_list":["post-943983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston-texans","tag-brian-thomas-jr","tag-football","tag-houston","tag-houston-texans","tag-houstontexans","tag-jeffery-simmons","tag-keldric-faulk","tag-nfl","tag-reed-blankenship","tag-texans","tag-trevor-lawrence"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116909884292820406","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=943983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/834268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=943983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=943983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=943983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}