AFC East Notes: Bills, Jets, Patriots

Bills

Bills WR Robert Foster was something of a revelation as a rookie, amassing more yards in his first season in Buffalo than his entire four-year career at Alabama. He’s hoping to be a major part of a Bills passing attack that also added WRs John Brown and Cole Beasley this offseason.

“We got Brown, we got Beasley as well, a lot of vets that are going to come in and help us and develop us as players,” Foster said via Nate Mendelson of the official team website. “I’m very excited for them to come in and I’m going to take advantage of them. I want to become a great receiver and hopefully they continue to help me do it as a player.”

Jets

Jets QB Sam Darnold had a rough time in his encounter with Jets DC Gregg Williams‘ defense with the Browns in Week 3 of the 2018 season, completing less than half of his passes and throwing a pair of interceptions. The Jets believe that going against that same defense in practice every day will only help Darnold improve.

“I think it helps Sam a lot, just seeing all of the different looks and he has so many different, multiple personnel groupings that you know. You’re seeing different fronts, different coverages, especially in the third-down stuff,” Jets OC Dowell Loggains said via Eric Allen of the team’s website. “He’s going to accumulate and stack reps of odd floater, overload pressures and trap blitzes and all of those things he’s going to get to see. It’s going to be tremendous value as the season goes on and it’s stuff that he can put away in his toolbox and it’s going to come up in Week Six, Seven, Eight, and he’s getting a lot of good experience from that stuff.”

Patriots

Patriots RB Sony Michel (knee) said his goal is to be fully recovered in time for training camp. 

“It’s a process and it’s just something that I’m just kind of working towards,” Michel said, via Jeremy Bergman of Around The NFL. “That’s the goal to be ready for training camp.”

Michel added that he is hopeful to build off the success he had last season. 

“Just build on those moments,” Michel said. “Build on what I’ve done. See can I raise it to another level? How much can I learn from it? How much can I take away from it to add? I think that’s what it’s all about. Just building on top and just trying to improve.”

• Former Patriots TE Rob Gronkowski appeared to tell Saints QB Drew Brees, “Yeah, I’m coming back,” on the red carpet at the ESPY’s Wednesday night, though he followed it up with a laugh that makes it unclear if he was joking.