AFC Notes: Bills, Dolphins, Tua Tagovailoa, Patriots

Bills

Bills GM Brandon Beane feels that they weren’t able to put together a “complete game” throughout the season. 

“I would say at the end of the season that we never put together — I don’t have the answer for you — we never put together a complete game,” Beane said, via the team’s official site. “If you look back at some of the games we had early in the year, we had stretches in games, but we never from kickoff to the final buzzer, we were finding a way and that’s where I give a lot of credit to this team. It wasn’t always the offense, it wasn’t always the defense, Nyheim Hines in the Patriots game. Unfortunately, we were not playing our best football at the end.”

Beane thinks that they must improve “in all categories” after putting up just 10 points in their Divisional Round loss to the Bengals. 

“We’ve got to be better in all categories because 10 points didn’t get it done,” Beane said. “You don’t want to throw out everything we did this season. Again, we did a lot of good things statistically, and a lot of them were very similar to the previous year.”

When examining how the Bengals have structured their roster, Beane pointed out that they’ve benefitted from players like Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase being on rookie contracts. 

“They right now are on the advantage of a rookie quarterback contract,” Beane said. “And they had some lean years and without getting too much into their build, I don’t want to suck bad enough to have to get Ja’Marr Chase. I would love to have him, but you got to go through some lean years to do that. They were able to get Burrow at one, and I don’t remember where Chase was drafted, but it was pretty high.”

Dolphins

Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa‘s parents said that he plans on returning to the team next year and is not retiring.

“He comes back,” Galu Tagovailoa said, via TMZ. “That’s their guy. They love him, we love them and what they’re doing and how they’re helping him with his recovery and everything else trying to get him back.”

Patriots

• Patriots’ recently hired OC Bill O’Brien is excited about his return to New England and is looking forward to working with HC Bill Belichick again: “I’m looking forward to getting back and working with Bill, working for Bill, and doing what’s best for the team. That’s what this place is all about.” (Patriots Twitter)
• Zack Cox of NESN writes that Alabama offensive analyst Will Lawing is an assistant to keep an eye on for the Patriots given he’s followed O’Brien to several different coaching staffs every year since 2013.