AFC Notes: Bills, Jets, Patriots

Bills

Patriots’ HC Bill Belichick had nothing but good things to say about Bills’ QB Josh Allen, who has made quite an impact in the AFC North so far in his career.

“His improvement has just been tremendous from where it was three years ago,” Belichick said, via Boston.com. “Completion percentage, passer rating, decision making, production, it’s just gone…it’s risen at a really remarkable rate. It’s just remarkable how good he has become. Last year, this year’s built on that. What it was when he came into the league. But he’s just made tremendous improvement. Has a lot of command of the offense. They audible a lot. They change things. They obviously have a lot of confidence in him. He handles it well at the line. Rarely run a bad play or where they run into a bad look or a blitz or something like that. He doesn’t get fooled much by anything. It’s really impressive to watch how he’s developed there.”

• Bills HC Sean McDermott said he has “a lot of confidence” in CB Dane Jackson filling in for Tre’Davious White: “We’ve got a lot of confidence in Dane. But, look, he’s going to get tested. That’s just the reality of the situation.” (Joe Buscaglia)
• When asked about Bills RB Zack Moss‘ (concussion) role going forward, McDermott said it will be a “weekly” decision on which running backs are active. (Buscaglia)

Jets

Jets S Elijah Riley said that earning a starting role has been a “dream of mine since I was a kid,” but that his work ethic hasn’t changed now that he’s the starter. 

“This has been a dream of mine since I was a kid,” Riley said, via Ethan Sears of the New York Post. “Regardless of the barriers that are put in place, that didn’t change my ultimate goal. So as a result, my work ethic didn’t change.”

Jets HC Robert Saleh had high praise of Riley, describing him as a “ball magnet” and intelligent player. 

“It seems like he’s gotten the ball more than we got all OTAs and training camp,” Saleh said. “He’s been a ball magnet over the first three weeks. His superpower is his mental horsepower. He is a very smart young man. He can process very quickly.”

• Jets C Connor McGovern had high praise of rookie G Alijah Vera-Tucker: “If you were going to build an offensive guard in a lab, it would look like AVT.” (Rich Cimini)

Patriots

Patriots OC Josh McDaniels was glad to see Mac Jones complete a pass to WR Jakobi Meyers in a 3rd-and-21 situation in Week 12 against the Titans which led to a field goal. 

“We had the one sack on the fringe in the fourth quarter,” McDaniels said, via PatriotsWire. “And it’s third-and-[21]. We need a handful of yards to get back into field-goal range, and he makes a decent decision, completes the ball underneath to Jakobi [Meyers]. We get it into field-goal range. Nick [Folk] capitalizes on it, and makes the kick.”

Although the possession “wasn’t exactly what we wanted,” McDaniels reiterated that Jones was able to make the best of a difficult situation. 

“Ultimately the possession wasn’t exactly what we wanted, but there was some positive there because he’s understanding the scenario that he’s in, and he helped us actually win the situation, if you will, because third-and-20-somethings are hard to overcome.”