AFC Notes: Jets, Patriots, Texans

Jets

• According to The Athletic’s Connor Hughes, the Jets are looking for two new safeties for 2022. They could bring back S Lamarcus Joyner, but he doesn’t see the team re-signing S Marcus Maye.
• Hughes lists Bengals S Jessie Bates and Saints S Marcus Williams as free agent fits.
• With WR Elijah Moore on board, Hughes doesn’t think the Jets will bring back WR Jamison Crowder. However, Hughes thinks the Jets could re-sign WR Keelan Cole on a cheap deal to compete as a third or fourth receiver.
• Hughes doesn’t expect the Jets to re-sign OT Morgan Moses and says the team drafting a tackle at pick No. 4 is in play, listing Alabama OT Evan Neal and NC State OT Ikem Ekwonu as possibilities. 
• Hughes said the Jets would love to re-sign DT Folorunso Fatukasi, but the potential price tag of $10-12 million a year may be too much for them.
• On WR Braxton Berrios, Hughes believes the Jets want to re-sign him to a $5-6 million a year deal as their primary returner and depth receiver, but he could leave if a team wants to pay him more.
• Aaron Wilson reports S Jovante Moffatt had a visit with the Jets.
• The Jets were among four teams that placed waivers claims for former Packers DL Kingsley Keke, who was ultimately claimed by the Texans. (Field Yates)

Patriots

Patriots S Devin McCourty still feels like he is at the top of his game and isn’t sure if he is ready to hang it up just yet, not wanting to limit what he is able to accomplish while he is still physically able.

“I haven’t had a dropoff in athletic ability and the physical traits to play the game. So it all really comes down to mentally and being ready and being able to tap back in and go through a full season,” McCourty said, via NESN.com. “I think those are the things you have to think about. But I’m definitely going to take my time and see what happens in the future. I try not to say, ‘I’ll never do this or ‘I’m only going to do that and just kind of let it play itself out and see how it goes.”

Texans

Texans GM Nick Caserio believes that some of the criticism around executive Jack Easterby has been “unfair” given he works from an “operational and logistics standpoint” instead of making football decisions. 

“Jack has been a hot topic for a lot of people,” said Caserio, via TexansWire. “I’d say candidly some of the criticism has been unfair. I think Jack has an important role in an operational and logistics standpoint. That’s what he was brought here to do. That’s his role in football operation. I talked about this last spring. Anything as it pertains to making football decisions, whether it’s players, contract signings, scouting, draft analysis, those all fall under my jurisdiction. So, I would say if you look at a football operation in its entirety, it takes a number of different people.”

Caserio added that Easterby draws “a lot of respect and appreciation” around the organization. 

“I would say that I have a lot of respect and appreciation for the job that Jack does, and candidly not a lot of people really understand the nuts and bolts of it. But when you get a chance to spend time with Jack, I mean, you realize it’s probably not as bad as everybody makes it out to be. I’d say from his perspective, it’s always been an operational and kind of a logistics standpoint, and there are certain areas that maybe fall under his jurisdiction that we’ll communicate about, and I can handle the football areas. If there’s something we can talk about collectively as a whole, whether it’s myself, Jack, the head coach, whoever it is, then those lines of communication are open.”

Caserio continued to stand behind Easterby. 

“Look, Jack’s been a punching bag since he got here,” said Caserio. “Some of it I think quite frankly was a little bit unjust. Everybody has an opinion and they’re certainly entitled to their opinion. We’ll just kind of keep moving forward.”