AFC Notes: Bills, Jets, Patriots

Bills

Bills WR Stefon Diggs said he reached out to Emmanuel Sanders after hearing about his potential interest in signing with Buffalo.

“When I started getting a little bit of wind of him thinking about coming out, I instantly hit him up and told him I would love to have another teammate like him,” Diggs said. “I had known him prior to that so it wasn’t like a brand-new person. But I told him, ‘We need you here.’ I definitely feel like he’ll be one of the weapons for Josh (Allen) and one of the guys that we can lean on in crunch time and times like that.”

Diggs recalled his trade from the Vikings and described being “shocked” by his departure from Minnesota last year. 

“I was shocked (by the trade), but it was a planned shock, I guess,” Diggs said. “It was definitely something that it doesn’t feel like it happened a year ago. It feels like it’s been five years now. I’m getting warmed up, and the more I do things like this and get out in the community and get to know people, it always feels a little bit closer to home. So I plan on doing more stuff like this anytime I get the opportunity to just engage and take full advantage. Hopefully I can get real, real comfortable.”

• Jason Fitzgerald of OverTheCap points out that the Bills have the third-most workout bonuses in the NFL with potentially $3.2 million in commitments. A number of teams have announced that they don’t plan to attend the voluntary workouts next month, even though some players have these bonuses in their contracts. 

Jets

Jets GM Joe Douglas expressed how confident he is in new HC Robert Saleh after seeing how Saleh and his staff work in the offseason.

“No doubt,” Douglas told Albert Breer. “Obviously, you’re excited about Robert. And then you’re excited about this great staff of hires and teachers he’s bringing in. And then you’re excited about the defensive scheme, guys attacking up front, getting off the ball and creating havoc on the D-line. And this offensive scheme, creating explosives in the run game and creating explosives off of that with the play-action pass and all the different route combinations they have. So you’re fired up about that.

“And then you get into these meetings, and there’s such a clear-cut plan. There’s such great teaching methods that they have in place. And just going through these conversations, it’s reinforced the excitement that you had when we made the hire. These are great guys, man. They have the vision and they have a plan and it makes your job easier from a personnel perspective when there is that clear vision in what they’re looking for—like, O.K., this is easy, we can find guys that are made of the right stuff. It’s been cool. It’s been really cool.”

• Rich Cimini reports Douglas was not at Ohio State QB Justin Fields‘ second Pro Day since he attended the first one.

Patriots

• ESPN’s Mike Reiss mentions Patriots QB Cam Newton is working to fine-tune his footwork this offseason and align his lower and upper halves. 
• Pro Football Network’s Tony Pauline says the Patriots are one of the teams showing interest in Louisiana Tech RB Israel Tucker as an undrafted free agent. 
• The Patriots sent OC Josh McDaniels, assistant director of player personnel Dave Ziegler, and national scout Matt Groh to Ohio State QB Justin Fields’ second pro day on Wednesday. (Albert Breer)
• Breer mentions that Patriots executive Eliot Wolf and an area scout also attended Fields’ first pro day earlier this month. 
• Jason Fitzgerald of OverTheCap points out that the Patriots have the 10th-most workout bonuses in the NFL with potentially $1 million in commitments. A number of teams have announced that they don’t plan to attend the voluntary workouts next month, even though some players have these bonuses in their contracts.