AFC Notes: Mike McDaniel, Tre’Davious White, Bills, Dolphins, Patriots

Bills

Bills DB Damar Hamlin said the opportunity to run out of the tunnel on Sunday in his first live action since suffering cardiac arrest meant “everything” to him.

“That moment was everything to me,” Hamlin said, via Alaina Getzenberg of ESPN.com. “I think it was more so about promising to myself than anything else — just showing myself that I have the courage, I got the strength, that I got the pride, everything….in me to be able to go through something so traumatic and to be able to come back from it. To be able to still do what I love at the highest level in the world is amazing.”

• Bills HC Sean McDermott on the Achilles injury suffered by CB Tre’Davious White: “He’s been through a lot, and sometimes you wonder why things like that happen twice. You watch how hard he’s worked to get back.” (Katherine Fitzgerald)

Dolphins

Dolphins HC Mike McDaniel reiterated that he doesn’t want the team to continue to make the same mistakes, especially defensively, and hopes to see that side of the ball make adjustments.

“I was very candid and let them know that my expectation is that we aren’t that team that continually makes the same mistakes,” McDaniel said, via PFN. “I really, really want to see guys come together in their journey and understand that not one player has to make a play on each play. I think there’s some of that, too, where guys have a high standard they can feel during the game, and it’s not living up to their standard. So it’s, ‘Alright, well, I’m going to go strip the ball from this ball carrier,’ and then not get the ball carrier down and leak for seven more yards. Things of that nature. Guys just trying to make a play. The entire locker room, they need to really come together as a group, and we need to as a defense play better team defense. That’s the great thing about this game is there’s nowhere to hide. It is what it is, and that doesn’t bother me. You get beat 48-20, you should know coming into the building that things have to get corrected, and that’s not to our standard. I think we’re on that process. I think meetings have been good today, and we’ll see what that brings forth on Wednesday.”

Patriots

Patriots OLB coach/defensive play-caller Steve Belichick isn’t surprised by first-round CB Christian Gonzalez‘s early success, adding that his film from college is transitioning to the professional level.

“I don’t know if I would say surprised, just because we did a lot of work on him coming out of college,” Belichick said, via Patriots Wire. “You could see a lot of these traits when you watched all the college tape and stuff like that. So, I wouldn’t say surprised, but he’s been playing really well so far, which is the expectation for all the players we have around here. But I’m definitely happy we have him. This is why we drafted him and everybody else. I’m happy that he’s doing well and hope it can continue.”