AFC East Notes: Bills, Dolphins, Patriots

Bills

• Bills HC Sean McDermott announced that C Russell Bodine has an oblique strain and T Conor McDermott is in the concussion protocol after coming down with symptoms this morning. (Chris Brown)
• According to McDermott, WR Zay Jones has been cleared after being checked for a concussion last night. (Marcel Louis-Jacques)
• Bills TE Jason Croom will return to the individual portion of practice on Friday after being out since the beginning of camp with a hamstring injury. (Joe Buscaglia)
• Bills rookie TE Dawson Knox is “getting better” from his hamstring injury, but isn’t as far along as Croom right now. (Joe Buscaglia)

Dolphins

Dolphins HC Brian Flores told reporters that he would like to rein Josh Rosen‘s “gunslinger mentality.”

“At some point as a quarterback, you have to take a sack. That’s the play,” Flores said, via the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. “But the guy has a little bit of a gunslinger mentality and likes to let it rip. Obviously, that was a nice one to Preston [Williams], but I think we want to play smarter than that in that situation. Not just let the ball go like we did.”

Rosen admitted that he needs to strike a better balance in this regard. 

“You just can’t fall into that trap because bad games will turn really bad really quickly if you don’t learn negate that risk,” Rosen said. “I’ve been battling that my whole career. I have to find that balance of knowing when I can push the edge, and when to just take the sack and live to play another down.”

• Flores said he had “very direct” conversation with Robert Nkemdiche and told him that he needs to get in shape. Flores added that he’s “eager” to take on the challenge of getting Nkemdiche to reach his potential. (Armando Salguero)

Patriots

Patriots’ veteran S Devin McCourty said he is proud to be entering his tenth year in the NFL. 

“It was always a goal – once I got into the league – to play 10 years, so it means a lot,” said McCourty, via Jeff Howe of The Athletic. “The average (NFL career) is three (years), and a lot of guys who get to stick around are like, man, it’d be awesome to play 10 years. To be in my 10th year and still feel pretty healthy, to go out here and compete, just being able to do that, obviously I don’t think about it every day. But to come in and be like, man, this is my 10th training camp, I take pride in that and just trying to keep it going.”

McCourty added he has not considered how long he will continue his NFL career after this season. 

“I haven’t,” McCourty said. “I’ve been having a lot of fun this year. I haven’t thought about next year or anything else. I’m just trying to see how much better I can get in year 10 and see how good I can be still at, in a couple weeks, (when I turn) 32 years old and still playing football and trying to embrace that.”

Regarding Patriots’ suspended WR Josh Gordon, Lions WR Brandon Powell said the receiver has stayed up to speed while working out with Gordon this offseason. 

“If you train with him, you wouldn’t even know that he’s suspended or anything,” said Powell, via Kevin Duffy of the Boston Herald. “He came to work every day, worked as hard as anybody there.”

Powell said that Gordon “dusts everybody” while doing track workouts.

“It’s like watching a horse run,” Powell said. “He goes from zero to 100. To be so big and run like that, it’s pretty crazy. … We run conditioning on the track — 100s, 150s — and he dusts everybody.”