AFC Notes: Dolphins, Jets, Patriots, Joe Judge, Matt Patricia

Dolphins

Dolphins HC Mike McDaniel spoke at length about the play of seventh-round QB Skylar Thompson after the first preseason game.

“I have to check myself when certain things will happen during a game or practice where I’ll feel myself getting impatient with him because I’ve completely forgotten he’s a rookie,” McDaniel said of Thompson, via DolphinsWire.com. “But he is a rookie, and to his credit, we rely on him as a veteran. It’s a hard thing in this league with a night’s sleep to go in as a starter – we were pumped to give him that opportunity. I know he feels like, and we’ll all feel like, he left some plays out there. But the biggest thing is we didn’t have any turnovers as an offense. I think we had one penalty, so that’s something to build on positively and you can’t have those types of statistics there, specifically, if you don’t have efficient good quarterback play. It was cool to watch – he was pumped. He was very salty, I think, every series because he was mad at himself for whatever happened the previous series and that’s a good starting point because he didn’t shy away from making plays either after he was frustrated.”

“(Seeing him run the offense) was one of my favorite parts,” McDaniel added. “At the beginning of the game, I thought the operation looked slow. They were trying to get the play in pretty fast and I don’t know what he was saying exactly in the huddle, but it was just taking a long time to get them lined up. I took the opportunity to tell him, “Hey dude, you need to get the guys in and out of the huddle.”  He was able to adjust that – he did better with that while also taking each play, one play at a time. That was an encouraging thing you don’t know until it’s real. There are a lot of rookies out there that I think felt more rookie feelings than he did, and he touches the ball every play. I’m happy with that. There is a lot to get better from, but he’s a stud. We are happy to have him.”

Jets

Jets QB Mike White had his moments during the 2021 season and says that despite being competitive in nature, he knows what his role is in New York this season under a new contract.

“Everyone is a competitor, so you are going to be disappointed,” White said, via The New York Post. “But the moment you get into your head and get all mad is when you don’t play well, and you will find yourself as a fourth-stringer real quick. You have to take it in stride. I know what the Jets think of me and what I think of them. I’m glad I’m back because I think we’re building something special and I didn’t want to leave just when it’s starting to get going.”

Patriots

Patriots HC Bill Belichick said the decision to alternate play-calling duties between offensive assistants Joe Judge and Matt Patricia was not a competition.

“That doesn’t have anything to do with it,” he said, via ESPN.

Patricia described the overall situation between him Belichick and Judge “collaborative.”

“We follow Coach Belichick’s lead. We’re 100 percent just trying to make sure that we do everything possible as coaches to allow our players to go do everything they can on the field. That’s what’s important, not the rest of it.”

Judge appeared to be in lockstep adding that his role is to make Belichick’s life easier any way that he can.

“The assistant coach’s job is to make the head coach happy. He has a vision for his team. It’s our job to listen and to go out and execute the way he sees it. As far as defined roles, or whatever it may be, I come to work with one simple policy — whatever he says, goes. My job is to do whatever he says to the best of my ability to get the players playing better.”

The team expects “growing pains” on offense and has underwent significant changes this offseason.

“It’s been a lot of change for all of us,” OL David Andrews said. “I think a lot of guys are really trying to figure it out and embrace what we’re trying to do.“