AFC Notes: Stefon Diggs, Robert Saleh, Bills, Jets, Patriots

Bills

Bills GM Brandon Beane touched on why they felt they needed to get ahead of the curve and trade WR Stefon Diggs this offseason so the cap wouldn’t haunt them for years to come. 

“A player of his caliber, you weigh a lot of things in those situations,” Beane said, via The Athletic Football Show. “But ultimately, we just talked about the cap. I don’t need to go through all the reasons why we decided to go ahead and do that. I would say, from a cap standpoint, we decided just to go ahead and eat it now. We think we can compete and do what we need to do by eating it now. And not next year. Because if we didn’t, if we tried to come up with some way to split it up too many different ways, then now it’s just like that albatross hanging on your neck all year. You look at your cap and you’re going, Look how much money we still have dead.”

• Former Bills Football Analyst Evan Weiss is leaving the team for a job with FanDuel. (Seth Walder)

Jets

Jets QB Aaron Rodgers indicated HC Robert Saleh has been more involved with the offensive group and is bringing “really good ideas to the table.”

“As a defensive coach, he’s been in that room a lot, but he’s been kind of sitting over to the left of me a good amount of the offseason so far. So we appreciate his influence. He’s brought some really good ideas to the table,” Rodgers said, via Rich Cimini of ESPN. 

Rodgers said Saleh added some aspects they will try out during OTAs and training camp.

“He’s added a lot of interesting stuff that you’ll see throughout the OTAs and training camp, which I think would be pretty cool for us,” Rodgers said.

Patriots

Patriots DB Brenden Schooler has thrived on special teams in his early career and he talked about stepping up in that unit following the retirement of WR Matthew Slater.

“I love this game and wear my emotions on my sleeve,” Schooler said, via Mike Reiss. “That’s something I’m going to try to take into [2024] — be that rock and even-keel leader. No matter what’s going on on the field, I’m going to be the same guy every day.”