AFC Notes: Bills, Jets, Patriots

Bills

Bill DT Star Lotulelei was one of the dozens of players who decided to opt-out of the 2020 season due to a variety of pandemic-related reasons. Lotulelei says he enjoyed his time away with his family but the 31-year-old nixed any thoughts about retirement. 

“I knew when I was watching the team and when I watched last season that I wasn’t done,” Lotulelei said via the Athletic’s Joe Buscaglia and Matthew Fairburn, adding, “I enjoyed [the time away], but my wife wasn’t so into the whole idea as much as I was. She was getting sick of me, so that’s when I found out like, maybe my wife isn’t ready for me to call it yet. I was ready to come back.”

• Bills 2020 sixth-round WR Isaiah Hodgins has been one of the standouts of OTAs after spending his rookie year on injured reserve and Bills HC Sean McDermott said he’s positioning himself to make noise in a crowded receiving corps: “Isaiah, I think is off to a phenomenal start again because of his process and the offseason. He got himself healthy and now here we stand in the last week of offseason practices and I think he’s putting himself in position to make a real move.”

Jets

Jets ST Coordinator Brant Boyer was “ecstatic” when the Jets signed WR/ST Justin Hardee this past offseason. 

“I was ecstatic on that one, I have to be honest with you,” Boyer said in a news conference Thursday, via JetsWire. “We played 13 different gunners last year, so it was a real struggle. He’s been fantastic, and what he’s done is he’s taken over a leadership role in the room, and that’s what the biggest thing we needed in our room especially losing a bunch of our core guys and things like that… He’s done a great job. I expect big things out of him. Now we just need somebody to emerge at that other gunner, so they can’t double him every time and things like that, and we’ll see what happens, which I fully expect someone will do.”

While the Jets had one of the worst special teams units last season, they hope Hardee can change that after signing him to a three-year deal worth $5.25 million and $1,000,000 guaranteed.

Patriots

• Regarding the Patriots’ 34-28 comeback victory over the Falcons in 2017, Buccaneers QB Tom Brady said he sometimes re-watches the game and called it one of the greatest of his career: “Even for me, every time it’s on I gotta sit down and watch it. ‘Did that really happen?’ You just watch the sequence of plays, and that was pretty epic. … I’ve been in some great ones, that one is obviously second to none.” (Ben Volin)