AFC East Notes: Dolphins, Jets, Patriots

Dolphins

• Sources have told Matt Miller of B/R they expect Jadeveon Clowney to look to cash in with a “market-setting” contract that will likely come from a team other than the Seahawks. Miller mentions the Dolphins and Colts as two potential fits for Clowney.
• According to Miller, everyone around the NFL expects the Dolphins to draft Tua Tagovailoa. In fact, Miller writes “it’s either the worst-kept secret in league history or the best smoke screen ever.“

Jets

• According to Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News, the Jets and former OL coach Rick Dennison are scheduled to have an arbitration meeting with the NFL commissioner’s office later in February if they haven’t reached a settlement. 
• Dennison says the Jets attempted to re-assign him to a scouting position after being told new HC Adam Gase wouldn’t retain him on staff. Dennison alleges it was to get him to quit and give up $1 million the organization still owed him. 
• Mehta adds that Gase told people he had discussed the reassignment with Dennison despite never actually doing so. 
• Mehta writes the move is considered unusual for an NFL team, quoting one GM as saying: “It’s legal, but it’s B.S. It’s a Jets move.” Another said, “They’re hiding behind the contract language and screwing the guy. We don’t do things that way.”

Patriots

While there has been a lot of speculation about where Tom Brady will be playing in 2020, a former Patriots scouting staffer tells Matt Miller of B/R that he expects Brady to be back in New England. 

“[Bill] Belichick knows he can’t win a title with the quarterbacks on the market, and he knows he can’t draft one [where they are] in the first. And don’t forget, Josh McDaniels came back. Brady will too,” the former Patriots staff tells Miller. 

• Miller says that A.J. Green and Hunter Henry have “consistently” come up about potential targets for the Patriots in free agency.