AFC Notes: Dolphins, Jets, Patriots

Dolphins

Dolphins OL Jesse Davis has confidence in QB Tua Tagovailoa as the quarterback and team leader.

“He knows how to win games,” Davis said via the Miami Herald’s Barry Jackson. “Tua prepares the right way. He knows how to communicate to us. For him to come off a short week and injury to Jacoby, hats off to him. He did a good job. Tua comes in and looks you in the eye with confidence and gives you the play. He doesn’t stutter. He shows confidence to his players.”

Dolphins TE Mike Gesicki also threw his support behind Tagovailoa.

“Great kid, good leader,” Gesicki said. “He’s cool, calm, collected and does his job at an effective rate and everyone is excited to play with him.”

Jets

The Jets had to wait five days after trading for veteran QB Joe Flacco earlier this season for him to join the team and be able to practice. At the time, all the team would say is that it was for personal reasons but it did correspond with the mandatory testing re-entry for non-vaccinated players. Flacco confirmed this week he is not vaccinated. 

“I definitely have my reasons,” Flacco said via Pro Football Talk. “Honestly, I probably like to talk about this topic more than anybody. It’s one of those things that you debate with all the time. But overall I’ve felt like it’s more of a distraction than anything. So I feel like to kind of talk about it too much and give you all my beliefs, is more of a distraction than anything. I think the most important thing is going to play the football game.”

Patriots

The relationship between Patriots HC Bill Belichick and Alabama HC Nick Saban, who worked with him as an assistant coach for years, is so well known it’s the subject of documentaries. So when Belichick invokes Saban in comparison to another assistant of his, OC Josh McDaniels, it’s worth paying attention to. 

“It’s kind of like Saban, when we were in Cleveland. Nick knew what every player on the field was doing, and Josh is kind of the same way,” Belichick said via ESPN’s Mike Reiss. “He knows what all 11 guys are doing on offense, what their keys are, what their adjustments are, and he knows defensively how guys are taught to play certain blocks or routes or reads and how to attack them. I’ve learned a lot from Josh. He really excels in every area.”

McDaniels has seen his coaching star shine and dim multiple times throughout his career but it seems to have cycled back to the brighter side, especially because of his work with first-round QB Mac Jones. The No. 15 overall pick has been more efficient than any of the four other passers selected ahead of him. McDaniels is trying to keep that in perspective, though. 

“He’s a rookie [who has played] 10 games of his first season,” McDaniels said. “I’m just looking at, ‘Did we make progress in this area from last week? And we’re talking about everything: Cadence, stance, drops, pocket movement, eye level, reading the defense, progressions, patience, when it’s time to be aggressive, when it’s not, and his throwing mechanics. …So there’s a million things that we work on. I think we’re just trying to chop wood little by little in every area, and help him prepare for the game while trying to keep a big-picture focus on this season and his daily improvement.”