AFC Notes: Broncos, Dolphins, Jets

Broncos

• Brian Costello of the New York Post proposes the Broncos could be a trade partner with the Jets for WR Denzel Mims following the loss of WR Tim Patrick for the season.

Dolphins

Dolphins HC Mike McDaniel has a lot of running backs to work with this season, many of them new faces in Miami, including Chase Edmonds, Sony Michel and Raheem Mostert.

“I’m very, very happy with that room,” McDaniel said, via Pro Football Talk. “It’s one of my favorite rooms that I have been around. The competition is fierce but they’re bringing the best out of each other. They get along and they’re really – just watch. If your eyes can go fast enough, if there’s a good run, take your eyes and find Eric Studesville, the running backs coach, and find the running backs and they’re all fist-pumping and cheering. It’s awesome. They really root for each other and understand that they want to win the job. They don’t want to be given it at the expense of somebody else.”

Jets

Jets DT Sheldon Rankins said their expectations are to be the “best defense in the league” next season. 

“I think the expectations, to a man, have to be to be the best defense in the league,” Rankins said, via Brian Costello of the New York Post. “If we look at anything else or we put any other goal out there, we’re selling ourselves short. What’s the point of showing up to the race if you’re going to say, ‘Oh, third is cool?’”

Rankins reiterated that they must target being the best defense in the NFL and carry that mindset going forward. 

“For us, we want that target on our back,” Rankin said. “We want that challenge. We want to put that out there, because it gives us something to go out there and chase every day. It’s easy to say you just want to be good. That’s relative. What are you comparing it to? What is your barometer that you’re trying to judge that against? To say you want to be the best, everybody knows what that means. Going into it with any other mindset would just be flawed thinking. You’d be selling yourself short.”

Rankins pointed out the amount of talent on their defensive line with Quinnen Williams, John Franklin-Myers, Carl Lawson, Jermaine Johnson, Jacob Martin, and himself. 

“The amount of talent that we have in that room is pretty crazy,” Rankins said. “Even last year we were pretty talented. Obviously coming from New Orleans I played on a lot of talented groups, but top to bottom, I’d have to say man for man this is probably as talented a room as I’ve been in.”

• Jets HC Robert Saleh on the injury to RT Mekhi Becton, who is undergoing an MRI: “It’s stable … it doesn’t seem like a big deal.” (Connor Hughes)
• Saleh also told reporters WR Denzel Mims has expressed frustration about not having a bigger role in the offense but he doesn’t see that standing in the way of his performance so far. (Rich Cimini)
• Meanwhile, OL Conor McDermott has a low ankle sprain that will take a week or two of recovery. (Hughes)