AFC Notes: Rob Gronkowski, Von Miller, Bills, Dolphins, Patriots

Bills

Bills veteran OLB Von Miller said it’s his goal to get back to his former style of play after tearing his ACL in 2022 and thinks players judged his performance last season. 

“My biggest individual goal is just getting back to playing my style of football,” Miller said, via FanNation. “It’s crazy how you get injured, and you come back, and you really shouldn’t have even been playing, and people judge you by a product on the field. I could have easily sat out all of last season, but I couldn’t do my teammates like that. I felt like being later in my career, I didn’t want to sacrifice any of my years. But at the same time, I shouldn’t have been out there.”

Miller is going into next season with a chip on his shoulder, which is bringing back a previous mindset he had from earlier in his career. 

“I feel like people are judging me on that, so it’s making me a little bit angry, to be honest. It’s making me tap into a Von that I haven’t been in a while. I just want to get back to playing my style of football. Get back to talking s***, f****** making sacks, dancing, and making plays for my teammates. That’s been my whole mindset this offseason.”

Miller thinks Josh Allen and the Bills deserve a Super Bowl title. 

“The biggest team goal is bringing the first Super Bowl to Buffalo. Everyone feels like they deserve it, and they work hard, but Buffalo Bills fans and Western New York they deserve it, man. They do so much for our community and our football team. Josh Allen is an amazing player and person – he is one of the most amazing people that I have ever been around in my life. These guys deserve it, and I’m going to do everything in my power to give it to them.”

Dolphins

• ESPN’s Adam Schefter updated the current contract negotiations between Miami and QB Tua Tagovailoa: “The Dolphins have been very clear; they want to pay Tua Tagovailoa. The question is what is fair market value. And that’s a moving bar because a couple of weeks ago it would be easy to argue that ‘hey we don’t know if he’s worth the money that the Bengals are paying Joe Burrow…’ but then Trevor Lawrence comes along and he gets $55 million a year on average. And so when that happens, the market shifts.” (NFL on ESPN)
• According to CBS Sports’ Joel Corry, the Dolphins “should be willing” to redistribute some of WR Tyreek Hill‘s 2026 base salary to 2024 and 2025 to avoid “alienating their best player” by doing nothing to his contract this offseason. 

Patriots

The Patriots turned over a new leaf this offseason after replacing former HC Bill Belichick with HC Jerod Mayo. Longtime New England TE Rob Gronkowski knew Mayo would make an excellent coach from their playing days together.

“Jerod Mayo was just a phenomenon on the football field with lining every one up and also in the meeting rooms as well,” Gronkowski said, via Julian Edelman’s Games With Names podcast. “He knew where every player needed to be during any situation that occurred on the defensive side of the ball.”

“He knew how to read offenses, he knew when to call out plays, and he was always correct when he’d call a play out, or else he was just making the whole defense aware of when that play was going to be called. … He was just always alert, and you could always tell that was going to translate into the next phase of his life.”