AFC Notes: Jets, Patriots, Texans

Jets

• Brian Costello of the New York Post isn’t sure that Josh McCown opening the season as the Jets’ starting quarterback is a “sure thing.”
• Costello says he was surprised by the play of QB Christian Hackenberg during the minicamp after he displayed touch on deep passes and improvement on short and intermediate throws.
• If Hackenberg can build on his play during training camp, Costello expects him to be in the mix for the starting job coming out of the preseason.

Patriots

Yesterday, a report mentioned that the Patriots increased the incentives in S Patrick Chung’s contract for the 2017 season to $1.7 million (bit.ly/2sE0qmj).

Mike Reiss of ESPN has the full breakdown of how this money would be paid out:

• $200,000 if Chung plays 65 percent of the defensive snaps
• $400,000 if Chung plays 75 percent of the defensive snaps
• $500,000 if Chung plays 85 percent of the defensive snaps
• $300,000 if Chung plays 80 percent of the defensive snaps and the Patriots win 13 games
• $300,000 if Chung plays 80 percent of the defensive snaps and the Patriots are in the Super Bowl

Reiss adds that other than the increase in incentives, the Patriots didn’t do anything else to Chung’s contract.

Texans

Texans HC Bill O’Brien mentioned that he believes their second-year receivers — Braxton Miller, Will Fuller and Tyler Ervin — will take a “big jump” in year two.

“They are relatively young and I think you’d rather have it that way than relatively old.,” O’Brien said, via the Houston Chronicle. “You know what I mean? I think you want guys that are young and fresh and can run and are ready to go. So, I think that that’s exciting. I think that you’ll see a big jump from some of these guys that were rookies last year. You look at Braxton Miller and you look at Will Fuller and  [running back] Tyler Ervin, who has been used in a lot of different ways.  

“These guys have made a big jump from their rookie year to their second year, even just looking at the spring. So, I’m excited about that group, the leadership that Hopkins brings. We’re all excited about where that group can be.“