AFC Notes: Bills, Dolphins, Jets, Patriots

Bills

Regarding Bills CB Tre’Davious White landing on season-ending injured reserve with a torn ACL, HC Sean McDermott said the team must collectively take a step up in production. 

“It is next-man-up, regardless,” McDermott said, via Maddy Glab of the team’s official site. “But I think collectively as a team, we’ve got to take our game another level.”

Bills DC Leslie Frazier admits it will be difficult to replace White.

“He’s a match-up guy. It’s hard to find those guys in our league,” Frazier said. “But he’s allowed us to do some things on defense because of his ability to eliminate other people’s number one receiver. So there’s some big shoes to fill.”

Frazier expects CB Dane Jackson to “step up” for their defense going forward. 

“I think Dane Jackson is one of those guys who will step up,” Frazier said. “He’s the next man up and he’ll do a good job for us. But to say that he will play at the level of Tre’Davious, that would be, misleading for sure.”

• McDermott is confident White will be back to normal next year: “I’m confident that Tre will return to form.” (Katherine Fitzgerald)

Dolphins

• Dolphins HC Brian Flores said WR DeVante Parker and C Greg Mancz will practice this week — Will Fuller will not (Marcel Louis-Jacques)
• Flores said Fuller had a “pretty significant fracture” in his finger — “lot of broken bones” in there (Louis-Jacques)
• Flores said “there’ll be an opportunity” for Phillip Lindsay to be a bigger part of the Dolphins offense this week, but they’ll see how it goes in practice (Louis-Jacques)
• The Dolphins protect four players on their practice squad ahead of Week 13: DT Andrew Billings, DB Javaris Davis, RB Gerrid Doaks and QB Jake Luton. (Barry Jackson)

Jets

• Jets HC Robert Saleh said WR Keelan Cole (COVID-19) has been ruled out from Week 13. (Connor Hughes)
• Saleh said WR Corey Davis (ankle) is considered “day-to-day” and his injury is a matter of pain tolerance.  (Connor Hughes)
• The Jets worked out WR Tarik Black on Tuesday. (Aaron Wilson)

Patriots

Patriots fourth-round RB Rhamondre Stevenson said he’s learning how to be a professional.

“In the NFL, you can’t take a day off,” Stevenson said, via NESN’s Zack Cox. “That’s what I learned, and I learned that pretty quick. You’ve got to come in with a mindset to get better and just do everything the right way. It’s never going to be perfect, but you’ve got to try to be perfect. I learned a lot of things, but that’s probably the main thing I learned. You’ve got to come to work every day and be accountable to your teammates.”

• Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio says Patriots HC Bill Belichick’s contract has already moved north of $20 million per year. Florio adds top NFL coaches are expected to make $25 million a year in the next couple of seasons.