The Colts claimed linebacker John Bullock off waivers, the team announced Monday.
The Buccaneers waived Bullock on Friday.
Bullock appeared in 15 games with the Buccaneers this season, playing five defensive snaps and 253 on special teams. He totaled 10 special teams tackles.
He originally signed with Tampa Bay as an undrafted free agent on May 9.
Bullock saw action in 47 career games at Nebraska and recorded 126 tackles, 12.5 tackles for loss, 5.5 sacks, eight passes defensed, one interception and three forced fumbles. He garnered honorable mention All-Big Ten recognition in 2024.
Colts Clips
Philip Rivers made an unexpected return to the NFL as a quarterback last month and his three-game run as the starter for the Colts has put him on the radar for another NFL role.
A report last week indicated that teams are doing research on Rivers as a head-coaching candidate. Rivers’ only coaching experience has come for his son’s team on the high school level and he’s said that his plan is to go back to doing that now that his return to the field has come to an end.
On Monday, Rivers said from the Colts’ locker room that NFL interest is “nothing that I would shut down before it even became a possibility” but that there has been no substantive interest from teams at this point.
“There’s nothing of concrete with that,” Rivers said. “I think, if anything, this past month has taught me you’re open to obviously anything, I guess, and you go from there.”
Rivers also expressed confidence in his ability to do the job if something should come his way.
“I do think, as humbly as I can say it, that I can coach at this level,” Rivers said. “I know enough about the game, about the guys from a leadership standpoint — camaraderie, all that comes with it. But, again, that’s not something that I’m sitting here pursuing.”
Six teams currently have head coaching vacancies and there should be word soon if any of them are planning to add Rivers to their list of candidates.
Add Colts defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo to the list of Titans head coaching candidates.
Multiple reports on Monday say that the Titans have requested an interview with Anarumo. With the Colts’ season over, Anarumo will be able to have a remote interview with the team this week.
Anarumo joined the Colts in 2025 and the team finished 21st in points allowed and 23rd in yards allowed while going from 7-1 to missing the playoffs this season. Anarumo spent the previous six seasons as the Bengals’ defensive coordinator and has also worked as an assistant for the Giants and Dolphins.
The Titans have also requested interviews with Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph, Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy, and Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo.
Colts cornerback Charvarius Ward is considering retirement at age 29 because of the ongoing effects of multiple concussions.
Ward told reporters today that he is still having headaches after his latest concussion, which was four weeks ago. He said he’s been talking to his family, and that his father thinks he should retire for his own health and safety.
Ward suffered three concussions during the 2025 season, and even before the third one he said he was concerned about his future.
“I was kind of doubting if I was gonna play football again because it was like that scary,” Ward said of his second concussion of the season. “It was that scary, you know what I mean, because I was thinking about my life outside of football too.”
Seeking a healthy and happy life outside of football may lead Ward to decide that he’s done playing football.
The Colts completed a brutal second half of their season with Sunday’s loss to the Texans, but going from 7-1 to 8-9 won’t lead to a major shakeup in the organization.
According to multiple reports, the Colts have decided that head coach Shane Steichen and General Manager Chris Ballard will return for the 2026 season. Team owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon is expected to address the media about the decision on Monday.
Steichen was hired in 2023 and he has gone 25-26 through three seasons. Ballard has been with the team since the 2017 season. This is the fifth straight year the Colts have missed the playoffs and the seventh time in nine years with Ballard running the personnel department.
Quarterback Daniel Jones was central to the team’s impressive start and his torn Achilles contributed to the collapse down the stretch. He is unsigned for next season while 2023 first-round pick Anthony Richardson is under contract after missing almost all of the season with a fractured orbital bone. The Colts don’t have a first-round pick to use in pursuit of another quarterback after trading for Sauce Gardner and solving that spot will be a big piece of making sure that the end of next season finds the Colts in a better place than they are right now.
The Texans are the No. 5 seed in the AFC playoffs.
Although Houston benched its starters midway through today’s game once Jacksonville had secured the AFC South title, Houston’s backups did enough to pull out a 38-30 win over Indianapolis today. It was a back-and-forth battle that saw the Texans take a 32-30 lead with a field goal with 12 seconds left — and then add a defensive touchdown on the last play of the game.
Today’s win ensured that the Texans will be the fifth seed in the AFC — and benching the starters ensured that they’ll be healthy next week when the playoffs start.
The Texans will open the playoffs on the road next weekend against the winner of tonight’s Ravens-Steelers game.
The Colts had nothing to play for, but they were surprisingly effective, thanks to a very good game from rookie quarterback Riley Leonard in the first start of his career. Leonard completed 20 of 33 passes for 278 yards, with two touchdowns and one interception, and also ran the ball three times for 21 yards and a touchdown.
Leonard’s strong play today will raise questions about why the Colts brought in Philip Rivers after starting quarterback Daniel Jones was lost for the season with an Achilles injury. Although Rivers played well by the standards of a 44-year-old who hadn’t played football in five years, he didn’t play well enough for the Colts to win any of the games he started. Leonard might have been able to play well enough to win games and keep the Colts in playoff contention — and at the very least, playing Leonard would have helped the Colts develop and evaluate a young quarterback who might be part of the future of the franchise.
But the quarterback questions facing the Colts are for next season. The Texans still have things to do this season, starting with a playoff opener against the winner of the AFC North.
Colts wide receiver Alec Pierce has been ejected from today’s game against the Texans.
After a pass to Pierce in the end zone fell incomplete, Pierce went to the nearest official to say something, apparently complaining about the lack of a penalty. Pierce bumped the official as he leaned in to speak to him, and for that he was ejected.
Although players have to know not to make contact with officials, it was not particularly flagrant contact, and it seemed like the kind of thing the officials could have let go. Instead, Pierce is out for the rest of the game.
Pierce was having an excellent game. He had already recorded four catches for 132 yards and two touchdowns when he was ejected in the third quarter.
The Texans have accepted that the Jaguars are going to win the AFC South.
To win the division, Houston needed both to beat Indianapolis today and for Jacksonville to lose to Tennessee. But with Jacksonville beating Tennessee 31-7 in the third quarter, Houston decided to pull its most important players, concede the division to Jacksonville, and start getting ready for the wild card round.
Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud is out of the game, replaced by backup Davis Mills. And other key players on the Texans have gone to the sideline as well.
The Texans still have wild card seeding to play for, and beating the Colts today would guarantee the Texans the No. 5 seed. But Texans coach DeMeco Ryans has apparently decided that keeping his key players healthy is more important than improving his wild card seed.
And so the Texans have decided to prioritize staying healthy for next week over winning this week.
The Texans have shaken off a slow first quarter and taken control in the second quarter today against the Colts.
Houston opened the second quarter with an 11-play, 82-yard drive that ended with a C.J. Stroud touchdown pass to Jayden Higgins, giving the Texans a 13-10 lead.
On the subsequent possession, Colts quarterback Riley Leonard fumbled and the Texans recovered deep in Colts territory. From there, Stroud ran for a two-yard touchdown, only a minute of playing time after his touchdown pass, and the Texans now lead 20-10.
If the Texans win and the Jaguars lose, the Texans win the AFC South. Unfortunately for Houston, the Jaguars appear well on their way to blowing out the Titans. Still, if the Texans win they’re guaranteed of being at worst the No. 5 seed in the AFC, and they appear well on their way to clinching that.
If the Texans win today and the Jaguars lose, the Texans win the AFC South. But early on, things aren’t looking good for Houston.
Colts quarterback Riley Leonard hit Alec Pierce on a 66-yard touchdown pass to give Indianapolis a 7-3 lead over Houston.
The Texans marched down the field on their opening possession on an eight-play, 37-yard drive that ended with a field goal and a 3-0 Houston lead, but that lead didn’t last long.
Meanwhile, the Jaguars are losing 7-0 to the Titans.
On a day of scoreboard watching across the NFL, the Houston fans are happy to see that Jaguars score. But not so happy to see the Colts score an early touchdown on their defense.
