AFC Notes: Kendrick Bourne, Bills, Dolphins, Patriots

• The Athletic’s Joe Buscaglia notes the Bills are pretty set at wide receiver heading into training camp and assuming good health should enter the regular season with Stefon Diggs, Gabriel Davis, Khalil Shakir, Deonte Harty, Trent Sherfield and fifth-rounder Justin Shorter. 
• He adds Shakir, Harty, and Sherfield will be competing for snaps as the No. 3 receiver and Buffalo will likely ride whoever has the hot hand and is playing well throughout the season. 
• Out of the remaining receivers on the roster, Buscaglia thinks KeeSean Johnson has the best chance to crack the roster. 

Dolphins

New Dolphins QB Mike White discussed being pressed into service for the Jets last season in a brief starting stint that was interrupted by broken ribs. White was sidelined for a couple of weeks but pushed to play through the injury before it was fully healed. 

“It was crazy,” White said via Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald. “At the time when it happened in Buffalo like yeah, it hurt but I kind of was just like ‘Alright, maybe I just bruised my rib or something or I’m just sore and it was cold out so that’s not helping.’ And then when I got the news that I broke five ribs or four ribs, whatever the number was, it was kind of like I didn’t believe it. I was like, it doesn’t hurt that bad and then a week, having to lay off for two weeks and a week of just not doing anything it got really tightened up and then trying to throw through it was really painful. Every throw hurt. I mean, I’m proud of it because I didn’t tap out and I proved to the guys that quarterbacks can be tough, too, and hopefully my toughness isn’t in question. But it was a good learning experience and if anything I’m just happy to prove that I’m not just one of those little… quarterbacks that people like to make fun of from time to time.”

Patriots

Patriots WR Kendrick Bourne spoke about his performance with New England last season. 

“I didn’t give the team my best effort,” Bourne said, via Patriots.com. “Personally we as players have to be our best so we can give the team the opportunity to win and I feel like I didn’t do that. So I’ve been grinding, trying to get bigger, weighing more, just being a more solid receiver and being able to do more. I don’t really go off stats, I go off how I feel, how I look and I just wasn’t in a good place, now I just want to avoid that. So it was a good learning process, it was good that it happened to me, and it’s always good to learn from hard times, struggling times.”

Bourne also briefly mentioned he has no issue with the team bringing in veteran WR DeAndre Hopkins in order to improve the receivers group. 

“I’m a fan of D-Hop. It would be cool,” Bourne added, via Mike Reiss of ESPN. “I don’t know the gist of what’s going on, but he is a great player. Anything that would help us win, I’m with.”