AFC Notes: JuJu Smith-Schuster, Dolphins, Jets, Patriots

Dolphins

Dolphins DC Vic Fangio said they are hopeful to get S Brandon Jones back on the field after he missed their entire offseason program.

“We would like to get Brandon going. He missed the entire offseason. He missed most of training camp. Did not play in any preseason games. He just needs to catch up.. We’re giving him more… practice reps,” Fangio said, per Barry Jackson. 

Jets

• Jets OC Nathaniel Hackett responded to RB Breece Hall‘s complaints about only getting four rushing attempts in Week 2: “Everybody’s workload was very low … we just didn’t have a lot of plays. It hurts us because we can’t get a lot of people involved,” via Zack Rosenblatt.
• As for why the Jets didn’t double-team Cowboys LB Micah Parsons in Week 2, Hackett explained they needed to start running faster pass plays: “We had a lot of different hands we wanted to put on him. As the game got out of hand, you need to get more guys out. We needed to get some quick, easy completions. We even underestimated his speed on the quick game … it’s one of those things, we looked at the tape, we corrected it and saw how we can help ourselves out with that.” (Rosenblatt)

Patriots

Patriots WR JuJu Smith-Schuster said they are hungry going into Week 3 after losing 25-20 to the Eagles and 24-17 to the Dolphins. 

“We’re just hungry, man,” Smith-Schuster said, via Zack Cox of NESN. “We’re just hungry for a W. We put in so much hard work these past two weeks, and that word ‘close’ is kind of getting annoying. We want to actually put good stuff on film and actually go out there and win football games.”

Smith-Schuster thinks both results could’ve been different without committing costly turnovers. 

“It’s very close,” Smith-Schuster said. “It’s just a couple early plays early in the games that kind of hurt us in both past games with turnovers. If we don’t have those mistakes, I think we’d be doing very, very well.”

Smith-Schuster feels they are showing good effort and are really close to being successful. 

“That’s the thing, though — we do work hard,” Smith-Schuster said. “And that’s the part that, like, I’m bothered, because we work so hard day in and day out. I see these guys come to work every single day, put in the time and work and effort and compete, and we fall short in two games. So, it’s frustrating. You go home and you study all night long, and you go in and you’re so close. You need, like, an A-plus pass and you get, like, a B. It’s the worst feeling ever.”