AFC Notes: Bills, Dolphins, Jets, Patriots

Bills

• Bills HC Sean McDermott said LB Tremaine Edmunds (hamstring) remains “day-to-day” and did not practice on Wednesday. (Joe Buscaglia)
• The Bills protected three players on their practice squad ahead of Week 11 including DT Eli Ankou, DT Brandin Bryant and S Josh Thomas. (Alaina Getzenberger)

Dolphins

• Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa (ribs) said he feels “good, not great” and still healing from that injury earlier this season, However, he added that he doesn’t have any lingering issues with his finger. (Barry Jackson)
• Tagovailoa mentioned that his finger is “still healing” but considers it okay to play through: “Finger feels good. Still healing taking place. Other than that, it’s fine.” (Jackson)

Jets

• Jets HC Robert Saleh said QB Zach Wilson (knee) will practice on a limited basis on Wednesday and confirmed he hasn’t suffered any setbacks: “No setback. It’s still the same. It’s not 100%. He’s progressing the way we want.” (Ralph Vacchiano)
• Saleh explained why they plan on starting veteran QB Joe Flacco in Week 11 against the Dolphins: “Miami’s got a dynamic coverage system, with all the different coverages they run. Joe’s been there, done that. … This is why we brought in Joe, for situations like this.” (Vacchiano)
• Saleh feels Flacco will provide a “steadying” presence for New York against the Dolphins. (Connor Hughes)
• Saleh had high praise of backup QB Mike White despite benching him for Week 11: “I want to be very, very clear on this one. My comments on this one were because people wanted him out of New York. What Mike has done in three weeks proves he’s a capable QB who can play in this league.” (Vacchiano)
• Saleh added that Flacco does not have a short leash for Sunday’s game: “It’s his show.” (Hughes)
• Flacco told reporters he is not vaccinated. He added he “has his reasons” and is open to explaining those, but declined further comment saying, “overall I feel like it’s more of a distraction.” (Hughes)

Patriots

Patriots RT Trent Brown said that he had a life-threatening IV mistake occur when playing with the Raiders last season and briefly contemplated retiring. 

“To kind of come back and play against the Browns, I thought was pretty cool, because I almost died before we played them last year,” Brown said, via Chase Goodbread of NFL.com. “When I was laid out on the floor, I definitely thought about my kids. I even thought about retiring, honestly. It was that scary. I was about to be done with it. Then after it kind of settled down a bit, I was fine.”

Brown added that he nearly went into cardiac arrest when the problem occurred. 

“That was different. Coming off of COVID and then just expecting to play a game, and then make it all the way to the city, to the game, to the locker room,” Brown said. “And I’m going through my normal routine, getting an IV, and to just pass out and almost going into cardiac arrest was crazy.”

Brown said that it required around eight months to “feel normal again.” 

“To actually fully recover, it probably took about eight months to feel normal again,” Brown said. “And to actually start making steps, as far as improvement, to feel like myself again on the field after eight months.”

As for his calf injust that landed him on the injured reserve, Brown said that he suffered a setback in Week 4. 

“I wanted to get back sooner, but had a setback during the Tampa week,” Brown said.

• Patriots OC Josh McDaniels said they planned for OL Michael Onwenu to rotate with Brown in his return from the injured reserve this past week, which is why he didn’t start at guard: “[Owenu] obviously be a factor for us going forward.” (Zack Cox)
• The Patriots worked out DB Jameson Houston on Tuesday. (Aaron Wilson)