AFC Notes: Bills, Browns, Jets, Geno Smith & Patriots

Bills

• The Bills officially ruled out WR Sammy Watkins, WR Greg Salas, OT Cyrus Kouandjio and OL Patrick Lewis for Sunday’s game. (Chris Brown)

Browns

• The Browns ruled out WR Corey Coleman (hand), TE Seth DeValve (knee), C Cam Erving (lung), DE Carl Nassib (hand), QB Josh McCown (collarbone) and OLB Nate Orchard (ankle) for Sunday’s game. (Nate Ulrich)

Jets

Jets backup QB Geno Smith tells Tyler Dunne of B/R that “[he’s] still pissed off” the Jets elected to re-sign QB Ryan Fitzpatrick.

Smith is clearly not lacking in confidence, as he believes he’s “too talented” to remain a backup quarterback in the NFL.

“It’s going to come,” Smith said of another opportunity to be a starter. “I’m way too talented.”

• Jets HC Todd Bowles announced Friday that WR Eric Decker is out this week with a partial tear in his rotator cuff. Bowles considers Decker to be “week-to-week” moving forward. (Rich Cimini)
• Bowles added that Decker’s injury not necessarily season-ending, but will depend on how he responds to treatment. Surgery remains a possibility for him at some point. (Rich Cimini)

Patriots

The Patriots will have several notable players to address before free agency next year including LB Jamie Collins, LB Donta Hightower, DE Jabaal Sheard, DB Duron Harmon, TE Martellus Bennett and CB Logan Ryan.

“In general there’s some team planning you can do,” Belichick said, via CSN New England. “Sometimes, if you can work out a contract with a player during the season – we’ve done that with various players – if you can work it out, you work it out. If you can’t, then there’ve been a number of players that we’ve signed – our players – that we signed once free agency has started. Devin [McCourty] to pick a name.

“I don’t think you can be afraid of free agency,” Belichick added. “It’s not like if a guy gets to free agency you can’t re-sign him. You’re in a competitive market but, you know, you’re in a competitive market anyway.”