AFC East Notes: Dolphins, Jets, Patriots

Dolphins

Dolphins first-round DT Christian Wilkins said he has no plans to roll over for anyone this season, even though external expectations for the team is that they will be very low this year.

“I feel as a team, we can’t let outsiders or people who aren’t in this building create a narrative for us or create that rhetoric for us,” Wilkins said, via the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. “I’ll be working; I prepare every day. It’s hot as hell out there, and we work every day hard. Me personally, just because everyone thinks we’re supposed to be this or that, I’m not rolling over for anybody. I’m trying to bring it and be the best I can and I feel like guys around me are definitely trying to be the best they can be.” 

• According to Jason Fitzgerald with Over The Cap, the latest estimations have the Dolphins with $113 million in cap space for 2020. 
• Dolphins released OT Zach Sterup from their practice squad.
• Dolphins signed OT Chidi Okeke to their practice squad. 

Jets

• According to Manish Mehta of the NY Daily News, Jets HC Adam Gase actually preferred Browns QB Baker Mayfield and Bills QB Josh Allen over Sam Darnold when he was scouting potential options for the Dolphins. 
• Mehta writes Gase wasn’t wowed by any one part of Darnold’s game and he didn’t think the eventual No. 3 pick by the Jets had star potential. 
• One source termed Gase’s feelings on Darnold as “lukewarm.” Others said Gase had concerns about Darnold’s ability to win from inside the pocket. 
• Gase in Miami brought in three quarterbacks for a visit, including Mayfield, Allen and Luke Falk. They did not host Darnold. 
• Jets traded a 2021 sixth-round pick to the Patriots for WR Demaryius Thomas. (NFLTR)
• Jets signed K Sam Ficken. (NFLTR)
• Jets waived K Kaare Vedvik. (NFLTR)
• Jets waived DB Brandon Bryant from injured reserve. (NFLTR)

Patriots

Patriots WR Antonio Brown will start practicing this week and should make his debut for New England Sunday against the Dolphins. Playing receiver for the Patriots is infamously hard, and the man in charge of making that transition more smooth for Brown, Patriots OC Josh McDaniels, says it could take some time to determine how much Brown is involved at the start. 

“Antonio’s been a productive player, obviously, his whole career,” McDaniels said via Pro Football Talk. “We’ve had to defend him numerous times in my time here in New England. [He is] just an overall solid player that has done a lot of good things in our league. I think for us, it’s just how quickly we can get him acclimated to our process and our system and to things we do here and just build trust on the practice field, and then see how it goes and kind of let that determine how we build it from there.”

Brown was the focal point of the offense in Pittsburgh and likely would have filled the same role had he played for Oakland. In New England, Brown joins a team that already has Josh Gordon and Julian Edelman, as well as a philosophy of never forcing the ball to one player. 

“We have a lot of good football players on our team and a lot of guys that have roles that they can perform well,” McDaniels said. “We’ve got to go out there and put our guys in good positions to be successful, hopefully, with a really good week of practice. We’ll see how it goes as we go forward, but certainly we’ve always had the same concept in terms of our run game, pass game, our offense in general. We’re going to try to throw it where we’re supposed to throw it and we don’t try to force the ball anywhere or to anybody because that’s not necessarily the way we do it.”

• According to ESPN’s Mike Reiss, Patriots OT Marcus Cannon‘s shoulder injury is not considered season-ending or long-term in nature. 
• Brown will receive $5 million of his signing bonus within the next two weeks, with the remaining $4 million coming on January 15, 2020. (Jason La Canfora)
• Brown also has his $1 million base salary for 2019 fully guaranteed and can earn $500,000 total in per-game roster bonuses. He earns $1.5 million in incentives each for reaching 105 catches, 1,298 yds and 16 touchdowns.