AFC Notes: Bills, Dolphins, Jets, Patriots

Bills

Bills DT Ed Oliver said his arrest in May “didn’t feel right” and it still doesn’t even after all charges against him were dropped last month.

Oliver was charged with DWI and unlawful possession of a firearm after police pulled him over under suspicion of impaired driving, yet he was still arrested despite passing a Breathalyzer test.

“I’m not sure how you get arrested with nothing in your system,” Oliver said, via Marcel Louis-Jacques of ESPN. “That’s one of the things [I’m talking about] when I say life can hit you quick — even if you’re innocent, you can still go to jail for nothing. You’ve just got to do what you’ve got to do. If they say you’ve got to go to jail, don’t resist, go to jail.”

The Buffalo Bills issued a statement in support of Oliver once his charges were dropped back in July.

• Per ESPN’s Marcel Louis-Jacques, new Bills G Brian Winters says he’s been healthy for four or five months after undergoing shoulder surgery last November. 
• Bills WR John Brown said rookie WRs Gabriel Davis and Isaiah Hodgins know the playbook better than anyone else on offense. (Louis-Jacques)
• Bills CB Levi Wallace said he put on 10 pounds of muscle this offseason with the goal of improving his play strength. (Matthew Fairburn)

Dolphins

• Newcomer TE Adam Shaheen will be expected to compete for the backup tight end spot with TE Durham Smythe, according to Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald.
• After the Dolphins signed WR Chester Rogers, Jackson thinks he will enter the slot competition with a slight edge over receivers Gary Jennings and Isaiah Ford.
• Jackson mentions that the Dolphins seem inclined to use speedy receiver Jakeem Grant on the outside this season, after the opt-outs of receivers Albert Wilson and Allen Hurns.
• The Dolphins have also claimed TE Nate Wieting off of waivers from the Browns, who Jackson reports the team was interested in after he went undrafted out of Iowa, but nothing was ever discussed between the two sides.

Jets

• The Athletic’s Connor Hughes writes the biggest storyline for the Jets this year is how QB Sam Darnold develops in his third season. 
• He adds the Jets weren’t able to definitively improve their receiving corps despite signing WR Breshad Perriman and drafting second-round WR Denzel Mims, as they’re banking on Perriman finally finding consistency and Mims making an immediate impact with no offseason. 
• Hughes says the Jets will rely a lot on TE Chris Herndon to pick up some of the slack for the receiving corps as the team hopes for a third-year, post-hype breakout from the tight end. 
• The Jets have a brand-new starting five with first-round LT Mekhi Becton, G Alex Lewis, C Connor McGovern, G Greg Van Roten and RT George Fant. Now Hughes says they have to build chemistry together to improve. 
• Hughes notes the only real addition the Jets made to their edge-rushing group was third-round DE Jabari Zuniga. New York is hoping 2019 No. 3 overall pick DT Quinnen Williams can be much more disruptive in his second season. 
• Overall, the Jets are looking for new faces on defense after trading away S Jamal Adams and having LB C.J. Mosley opt out. Hughes says the Jets are also trying to find a second outside starting corner from the group of Blessuan Austin, Arthur Maulet and Quincy Wilson. 
• Jimmy Kempski of the Philly Voice outlines some trades he thinks makes sense for the Eagles, including Philadelphia sending either CB Sidney Jones or CB Rasul Douglas to the Jets for LB Blake Cashman.
• Kempski notes Jets GM Joe Douglas has some connection to Jones and Douglas from his time with the Eagles front office. While Cashman was solid last year as a rookie before going on injured reserve, the Jets are deep at inside linebacker, less so at corner. 

Patriots

Patriots DT Lawrence Guy talked about some ways that having QB Cam Newton on offense could help the team on defense this season.

“When you really watch Cam move, you can see how it’s going to help us get better as a team,” Guy said, via Zack Cox of NESN. “When you look around the league, there’s a lot of mobile quarterbacks, and he’s one of them — he’s one of the top ones to this day. “So you have to be like, ‘How can we use his mobility?’ … Because as a defense, you get different teams different weeks, and we’ve got that aspect right now. We’ve got (quarterbacks) that can move. We’ve got people that can throw. We’ve got people that can change up plays. So it just helps you develop more and more as a team, and it helps (us defend) that situation and style of football.”

Patriots WR Julian Edelman also spoke about how he was moving forward given that he will be catching passes from Newton this season instead of Tom Brady.

“Obviously, it was a little different scenario,” Edelman said, via Cox. “But you’ve got to move on. You understand this is a business, and you wish him well. And that’s when you instantly start thinking about what you have to do to prepare yourself to go out and contribute and help the team for the upcoming year. Obviously, yeah, we played a lot of ball together. I love him to death. But the train keeps moving, as it will when I’m not playing here someday. It just always keeps going, so we’ve got to worry about the people we have here and try to prepare ourselves the best we can with the situation that we’re in with everything we’re dealing with.”

• NESN’s Doug Kyed says he would give both Lamar Miller and Damien Harris several opportunities to earn the No. 1 running back role in New England.
• The Athletic’s Jeff Howe offers insight behind the Patriots signing Miller, noting it’s too early to know if RB Sony Michel will be ready for the regular season following foot surgery.
• He adds, however, New England’s interest in Miller was initially piqued by RB Brandon Bolden deciding to opt out and Michel hasn’t suffered any setbacks in his recovery. 
• Ben Volin of the Boston Globe notes that with four available roster spots, there are starting-caliber veterans available in free agency, yet the Patriots don’t seem to want to spend any of their $35 million in cap space.