AFC Notes: Sheldon Richardson, Dolphins, Patriots

Sheldon Richardson

• According to Rich Cimini, there doesn’t appear to be much interest in Sheldon Richardson at this point in time.
• The Colts, who could have been a potential trade partner, signed Johnathan Hankins last week. Cimini could see the Cowboys and Raiders making sense for Richardson, but his salary is apparently scaring teams away.
• Beyond that, Cimini mentions that teams are concerned about signing Richardson long-term now that he’s coming off of a down season and has already been suspended twice since entering the NFL.
• Even so, Cimini still isn’t ruling out a draft-day trade.

Dolphins

• Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reports that the Dolphins brought in Miami TE David Njoku for an official visit last week.
• Jackson admits that it would be surprising if the Dolphins drafted Njoku at No. 22, assuming he’s even available to them at that point in the draft.
• We have him being selected by the Titans in the First Round of our 2017 NFL Mock Draft.

Patriots

• Mike Reiss of ESPN writes that free agent RB LeGarrette Blount should be careful about waiting too long for a better deal to surface if he wants to be back with the Patriots or “the door might soon be closed entirely.“
• The Patriots recently hosted running backs Adrian Peterson, Mike Gillislee (restricted) and Damien Williams (restricted) for visits.
• Beyond that, there’s a deep running back class this year, so New England could always grab a young, cheap option at the position, as opposed to paying more for Blount.
• Reiss does add that the Patriots would like to have Blount, but they don’t feel like they need to re-sign him.
  As soon as the Titans released CB Jason McCourty, the Patriots were tossed out as a potential landing spot.
• Reiss says that McCourty is highly unlikely to secure a deal that would pay him the $7 million per year he was set to make this year. Instead, a source tells Reiss that he could be looking at a one-year with a maximum value of $2 million like Leon Hall got from the Giants last year.