AFC Notes: Bills, Dolphins, Jets

Bills

• Bills’ T Dion Dawkins on the team’s loss to the Indianapolis Colts: “That was a flush it game and it wasn’t our best ball. We have a game in a couple of days. We won’t let this poison us. We use it to help us and be ready on Thursday night.” (Chris Brown)
• Bills’ HC Sean McDermott also commented on his team’s loss: “It wasn’t good enough at all today and it starts with me. Winning at the point of attack, taking care of the football, penalties, none of it was good enough and it makes it hard to win.” (Brown)
• McDermott was also asked about COVID issues causing the team to be without DT Star Lotulelei and T Spencer Brown: “Again, I respect those guys decisions, and I want to talk about the guys that were here.” (Alaina Getzenberg)

Dolphins

• Dolphins’ HC Brian Flores commented on QB Tua Tagovailoa: “I think Tua is getting better every time he steps on the field. He made some good decisions. We moved it pretty efficiently in the second half. Tua is playing well. There are some throws and decisions I’m sure he’d like back. But he made enough plays.” (Joe Schad)

Jets

2021 has been a season full of growing pains, just like Jets HC Robert Saleh predicted before the start of the season. It’s one thing to say it, though, and another to keep up the messaging when the losses, ugly and heartbreaking, start piling up. Still, Saleh is continuing to preach patience as the Jets play more young players than anyone else in the league. 

“This is the formula,” Saleh said via ESPN’s Rich Cimini. “You inject your team with youth, you get on the football field, you let them go through all their lumps and you let them get their experience. Eventually, they’ll start triggering and all that explosive ability will unleash.”

“The same thing happened in Seattle,” he added. “We were playing with a bunch of nobodies and it turned into the Legion of Boom. I’m not saying that’s going to happen here, but it’s the best chance you have to build a champion rather than playing the free-agency game and trying to buy a roster.”

Saleh pushed back on the idea that the Jets’ poor start to the season should create an additional sense of urgency in how he runs things. 

“That urgency has led to a lot of decisions that put this organization in the situation it was in before [GM] Joe [Douglas] got here,” said Saleh.

• Per Cimini, Jets first-round QB Zach Wilson has a strong chance to return to the lineup in Week 12 against the Texans, as he should be fully healthy at that point. 
• Cimini adds QB Mike White still figures into the Jets’ plans. They intend to tender him as a restricted free agent and are aware he could draw interest from other teams. The original round tender would be $2.4 million and the second-round tender would be $3.9 million. White was a fifth-round pick in 2018. 
• SNY’s Ralph Vacchiano reports the NFL fined Jets LB C.J. Mosley $15,450 for unnecessary roughness last week.
• The Jets benched G Greg Van Roten for newcomer Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, who was acquired in a trade from the Chiefs. (Connor Hughes)
• Jets’ HC Robert Saleh said the Jets are going to “feel out where he’s at over the next two days” before deciding if QB Zach Wilson will start against the Texans next week. (Ralph Vacchiano)