AFC Notes: Bills, Jaguars, Jets

Bills

Former Bills C Eric Wood tells Albert Breer of TheMMQB.com that he was very close not being able to live a normal life before he made the decision to retire this offseason.

“The second I want to play again and get upset my career’s over is the second I need to think back to how close I was to really being messed up for the rest of my life, and not being able to live a normal life and raise a family the way I want to,” Wood says. “So yeah, the timing stunk. But all things considered, we come off a playoff berth, I get out, and I can walk and play golf and run around with my kids.

“I was very close to that not being able to happen. I feel very blessed in that regard.”

• Bills HC Sean McDermott reiterated that the quarterback rotation will mainly be the same when they open up training camp, which means Nathan Peterman and A.J. McCarron will alternate with the first unit and rookie Josh Allen working mainly with the third-team offense. (Joe Buscaglia)
• According to McDermott, he has “no reason not to believe” WR Zay Jones will be ready for the start of training camp after undergoing offseason knee surgery. (Mike Rodak)

Jaguars

Jaguars DE Dante Fowler Jr said Wednesday that he knows “how good of a player I am” and he plans to work to put out good film this year for teams to see.

“I can really only do so much playing a certain percentage of the snaps,” Fowler said, via Jacksonville.com. “When I look back on it, I feel good but there are some things that I need to work on. I’m going to keep working hard and do my job so I can put good film out there for everybody to see.”

The Jaguars declined Fowler’s fifth-year option, which means he’ll an unrestricted free agent in 2019.

Jets

Jets RBs coach Stump Mitchell has been really impressed with second-year RB Eli McGuire and even compared him to Hall of Fame RB LaDainian Tomlinson.

“Wow, Eli looks fantastic, to be perfectly honest,” Mitchell said, via NJ.com. “I’ll tell you who I see Eli as, and he’s in the Hall of Fame. Eli can do those type of things. He has the skillset to be a LaDainian Tomlinson if he was given that opportunity.

“That’s not what presents itself to him at this particular point in time. But skillset, he can do it all. He can catch. He can run. He can run routes as a receiver. He just happens to be here. And I’m glad we’ve got him.”

• Jets HC Todd Bowles said Thursday that Josh McCown will open camp as the No. 1 quarterback, but the starting job is still up in the air. (Connor Hughes)