AFC East Notes: Bills, Dolphins, Patriots

Bills

• Mike Rodak reports that Lee Smith‘s new three-year contract with the Bills does not include a signing bonus and will pay him, $1.9 million fully guaranteed in 2019 along with a $1.5 million roster bonus and a $100,000 workout bonus. 
• In 2020, Smith has a $2.65 million base salary with $1 million fully guaranteed, a $500,000 roster bonus a $100,000 workout bonus, per Rodak. 
• Smith is set to make $2.25 million in 2021, but doesn’t have any guarantees at that point in the deal. 

Dolphins

While the Dolphins have maintained that they plan to have Josh Rosen and Ryan Fitzpatrick for the starting job this summer, multiple league sources tell Armando Salguero that they expect to see Rosen play in 2019 regardless of the competition.

Salguero writes that “regardless of what happens throughout the season, at some point the Dolphins will insert Josh Rosen as the starter and see what he can do.”

On Wednesday, Dolphins owner Stephen Ross said he has no say in what happens at the quarterback position.

“[Rosen]’s competing,” Ross said. “That’s all I know. I’m not making the decision. He’s competing. There’s nothing else to say. The coach has told you that. Everybody tells you that. That’s all it is.”

Patriots

Patriots TE Ben Watson explained his decision to unretire this offseason and return to the NFL.

“I was done,” Watson said, via NESN.com. “I wasn’t even a free agent. I was done, off the books for a couple months. I was considering other opportunities moving forward to different occupations. And talking to my wife, talking to the kids and family probably right around late April, early May, I started to think, ‘Maybe, let’s just see if there’s an opportunity to play one more year. Once you’re done, you’re done. Maybe there’s an opportunity to do one more.’ And I said I really didn’t want to go — I didn’t want to go to the west coast. I didn’t want to go anywhere crazy. I wanted to go somewhere I knew people, somewhere I felt my family would excel and do well. I would have loved to stay in New Orleans or come somewhere like in New England where I knew people. So, New England offered and reached out and said there was an interest there. We definitely thought it was a good thing. Thought it would be a good fit.”

• Albert Breer of TheMMQB.com reports that most NFL owners and team executives have “cooled” on the idea of disciplining Patriots owner Robert Kraft under the league’s personal conduct policy in his solicitation case now that it has made its way through the court system and the video evidence has been thrown out. 
• According to Breer, the sense among those at the league meeting is that if Kraft wins in a court, there’s a decent chance he’ll also escape league discipline.
• On Wednesday, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said they’re still gathering facts about the matter: “I’m not going to speculate on … discipline. Again, getting all the facts. But, yes, of course, we’ll be gathering our own facts and finding out what actually transpired, as we would with any case.”
• Breer writes that the Patriots are always open to making moves during the summer and into the fall, but he thinks they’re more likely to add a tight end than a receiver at this point.