AFC Notes: Kendrick Bourne, Aaron Rodgers, Bills, Jets, Patriots

Bills

• Bills offensive tackle Spencer Brown was fined $11,255 for Unsportsmanlike Conduct (taunting), and DT Jordan Phillips was fined $6,722 for the same offense stemming from Week 10.

Jets

• Dianna Russini of The Athletic suggests Cowboys HC Mike McCarthy could land with the Jets to reunite with QB Aaron Rodgers.
• Meanwhile, Rich Cimini notes that while Rodgers said he would like to play next season, the Jets may have a new regime that could want to make a change at the position.
• Cimini adds that Rodgers has no guaranteed money remaining on his contract, making the move easy to pull off from a financial standpoint.
• Jets interim HC Jeff Ulbrich on having Rodgers back next season: “I would love for him to get an opportunity to play healthy football and see what that looks like for an entire season.”
• Rodgers on his time with the team so far: “It’s been actually a really beautiful couple years for me in totality, but it’s obviously been frustrating with the football part.”
• Ulbrich gave the team an instructional video on tackling after they missed 20 in Week 10, with CB Sauce Gardner noting that tackling is a basic skill for a football player: “We don’t need no presentation.” 
• Jets cornerback D.J. Reed was fined $11,255 for Unsportsmanlike Conduct (taunting) in Week 10.

Patriots

Prior to his strong performance in Week 11, Patriots WR Kendrick Bourne spoke of his benching, saying the team approached him and told him that they were looking to get younger players involved.

“They’re trying to get the young guys going. They kind of just told me through the week that I was going to be down,” Bourne said, via MassLive. “I looked at it internally. Not pointing a finger. I can play better. I look at my film. I look at myself. Honestly, I don’t think it has anything to do with my knee. It’s just I have to play better. The Jets game, I think about that – I have to make those plays. I can block better. I can do a lot of things better. Just look within as I evaluate myself. Even the Tennessee game, I had some good catches, but I can play better. That’s kind of how I look at it. If I want to play, if they see something that I can’t see, I have to go apply myself, so I’m not in this situation. That’s how I’m approaching it.”

Bourne added that the team’s coaching staff didn’t give him any specifics on what he needed to improve upon.

“I’m not sure, honestly. I don’t know either. Like, I can’t point out anything specific,”  Bourne said. “I think it’s just overall if I grade myself, it wasn’t good enough. If I’m grading myself on the last four games, it’s not good enough. That’s how I have to approach it. Some catches can be good. I was on the ground a lot in that Tennessee game – little things that I can clean up. That’s literally how I’m approaching it. I can’t say anything specifically like when you look at yourself, you give yourself the green light, and when other eyes see it, my coaches look at it, it might not be good enough. That’s how I have to approach it. They might see that I can do more. That’s why through this week I’m going to try to be better as I move forward.”