Bills

New Bills S C.J. Gardner-Johnson told reporters that he isn’t concerned about perceptions that he isn’t a good teammate, citing that the Eagles traded him to Houston last season because they were afraid of the level of competitor he was.

“I look at it like this,” Gardner-Johnson said, via the team website. “If — and I don’t throw shade. I don’t throw — because locker rooms that I’ve been in, we’ve won. But the situation I got traded to, like, it’s hard to go into something where you’re not really familiar. Like, it’s like spurts. . . . That’s like going to McDonald’s. You can eat McDonald’s, but you don’t know how to make the fries. So, it’s like, I’m not saying you didn’t know how to play football, it’s just like, you have to gather that relationship while trying to get better while trying — and the season comes quick and all. Once the moves, the draft picks get in, it’s on you.”

“For me, I look at, like, every place I’ve been with, I won,” Gardner-Johnson added. “If it was a locker room problem, I just result back to whatever came out. Why now? Like, why now? If I was a locker room problem, like why now? What was the news flashes when we were winning, going 14-3? When we were on the top of the mountain. . . . When I was catching six [interceptions], but where was those like — but why now? So I just take it with a grain of salt . . . it is what it is.”

Dolphins

Dolphins QB Malik Willis said during his introductory press conference in Miami that he has grown a lot since entering the league and didn’t feel he was ready to be a starter on day one, something that has since changed, given his growth in Green Bay.

“I don’t think I put a timeline on it,” Willis said, via Omar Kelly of the Miami Herald. “It happened when I was prepared. I think when I came into the league I wasn’t prepared. That’s not a knock towards my coaches or myself, that’s just what it was coming from the system I came from. I’ve had a chance to learn the last four years since I’ve been in the league — been through four different offenses, seen a bunch of different defenses and think I’ve grown a lot. Grateful for the opportunity once again.”

Jets

Jets QB Geno Smith is back with the team for the first time in ten years and is happy, given that the franchise was the first to take a chance on him and draft him in the second round out of West Virginia.

“Just to come back now, to have an opportunity to continue to play this game that I love so much, and to be part of that organization again — the organization that gave me a chance coming out of West Virginia and really believed in me,” Smith said, via the team’s website. “Although it didn’t go exactly as planned, somehow, someway, we got back here. And I’m eager to make things right if I can.”

• Smith on WR Garrett Wilson: “A true No. 1, Top 10 receiver in this league. Everybody knows what he can do. It’s my job to get him the ball and get him the ball early, get him the touches he needs.” (Rosenblatt)
• $24.5 million of Wilson’s 2027 salary with the Jets is now guaranteed. (Spotrac)