AFC Notes: Bills, Jets, Patriots

Bills

• Bills GM Brandon Beane said he was hoping DE Von Miller‘s knee would just need a clean out scope, but required a full surgery: “When he (Dr. Cooper) went in there yesterday afternoon, he decided that it would not be stable enough, it would not hold up, & that a full repair was needed.” (Katherine Fitzgerald)

Jets

• Regarding the Jets’ loss to the Vikings in Week 13, OC Mike LaFleur said they made a “collection of errors” in the red zone and their “execution” wasn’t effective enough. (Zack Rosenblatt)
• As for a play on 4th-and-1 where the Jets called a pass play to WR Braxton Berrios that resulted in a drop, LaFleur explained that it was “unorthodox” to call an empty set but wanted to see if they could get their receivers freed up: “I know it’s unorthodox to go empty in that situation, but the point was to get people open. We did that, we just didn’t execute it to get the touchdown.” (Zack Rosenblatt)
• LaFleur added that he didn’t want to call a quarterback sneak in 3rd-and-1 or 4th-and-1 situations because of how the Vikings were crashing the middle of their offensive line. (Connor Hughes)
• LaFleur had high praise of QB Mike White‘s presence in critical situations: “[He has] ice in his veins.” (Zack Rosenblatt)

Patriots

Patriots HC Bill Belichick said that they don’t plan to make overhauling changes to their system at this point of the season. 

“Look, we’re not going to go to the wishbone offense here. We’re not going to run the veer,” Belichick said, via NFL.com. “Defensively, we’re not going to change into a — run some other team’s defense or whatever. Yeah, major changes, yeah absolutely, we wouldn’t be able to practice it.”

When asked about changing play-calling duties from OL coach Matt Patricia, Belichick responded that they are comfortable with their system in place. 

“Yeah. Again, the system that we have in place, I feel good about,” Belichick said. “Which includes the offensive staff, it includes me, it includes whatever the whole process is. Yeah, on defense, on offense, on special teams.”

Belichick added that any changes to their offense would be subtle. 

“So, there’s some things you know, you trim the fat here and, move it a little bit over in this direction,” Belichick said. “Or maybe you add a little bit more of something that you feel like is going well, maybe a player is doing something that — or some part of your offense or defense doing something that’s a little more productive. And maybe you want to add a little bit more to that. So, that would just be, let’s say, shifting the emphasis.”