AFC Notes: Bill Belichick, Jaylen Waddle, Bills, Dolphins, Patriots

Bills

Cowboys HC Mike McCarthy had high praise for Bills’ recently signed G Connor McGovern following his time in Dallas. 

“I think he’s definitely on the rise,” said McCarthy, via Ryan O’Halloran of the Buffalo News. “Really, Connor’s challenge were his injuries early in his career. His best football is in front of him.”

McCarthy thinks McGovern is “versatile” and enjoyed using him as a situational fullback. 

“Very versatile,” McCarthy said. “He probably got tired of me telling him how much I liked playing him at fullback.”

McCarthy thinks McGovern was highly productive during their playoff games. 

“He did a great job for us last year and particularly played well in the playoff games,” McCarthy said. “I’m a big fan of Connor. Buffalo’s got a really good one.”

Dolphins

Dolphins WR Tyreek Hill recognizes greatness in fellow wide receiver Jaylen Waddle, yet says that Waddle is yet to be shown the same love around the league by being named an All-Pro or being selected to the Pro Bowl.

“Man to me, Jaylen is an All-Pro, Pro Bowler, but I feel he doesn’t get the validation that he needs,” Hill told Click2Houston.com. “Obviously because you can’t have two fast guys on a team doing the same thing. Jaylen is a dope player. He’s an even doper person. The way I connect with Jaylen is off the field. I look at him like a younger brother ‚a guy who obviously wants to compete every day. He reminds me of myself. He’s very competitive. He’s very feisty. He doesn’t back down from no challenges.”

Patriots

Patriots HC Bill Belichick said they won’t be making any big offensive overhauls to their system under OC Bill O’Brien. 

“Every year is different,” Belichick said, via the team’s Youtube. “So, you always make adaptations to your system — at least we always do, shouldn’t say everybody does, we do — make adaptations to our system on offense, defense, special teams based on either trends, things that we want to do, things we’ve seen other teams do that we want to incorporate, things like that. So, this year would fall into that category, all three phases as well. So a lot of things are the same, some things we’ve modified. We’ll see how it goes. I’m sure we’ll make other adjustments as we go through the spring and training camp.”

Belichick points out he’s had a relationship with O’Brien for over 20 years and he trusts him as a colleague. 

“Bill does a great job,” Belichick said. “Had a great relationship with Bill all the way back to before we hired him the first time. And it’s continued, so it’s been — getting up there — around 20 years, somewhere in there. Bill’s detailed, he’s smart, he’s got a lot of experience. He’s worked with a lot of different players, different situations.”