AFC Notes: Terron Armstead, Tua Tagovailoa, Dolphins, Patriots

Dolphins

Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa is entering the final year of his rookie deal and will likely get a massive pay raise on his new deal. Despite looming negotiations, Tagovailoa is staying focused on the team and his play on the field.

“Just letting my agent deal with that and talk to the team about that,” Tagovailoa said, via Hal Habib of the Palm Beach Post. “For me, my focus is when OTAs come, go to OTAs, show up and be the best teammate I can be.”

• ESPN’s Matt Miller has heard there’s a good chance the Dolphins go after a tight end in the second round, with Texas’ Ja’Tavion Sanders, TCU’s Jared Wiley, and Kansas State’s Ben Sinnott potential targets. 
• The Dolphins signed DT Teair Tart to a one-year, $1.2925 million contract with $576,700 guaranteed including a $167,500 signing bonus. (Over The Cap)

Dolphins

The Dolphins lost some contributors in free agency while other divisional rivals like the Jets added big-name free agents such as OT Tyron Smith. Despite all the moves that have been made, Miami LT Terron Armstead is not worried about their chances in the division in 2024.

“It’s all in house, it’s all in house,” Armstead said, via Kevin Patra of NFL.com. “We don’t really look at all the other moving pieces within the division, or around the league, because we feel like we have enough. We’re talented enough, we’re skilled enough, we’re tough enough, we just have to do.”

“It’s now time to show improvements, to show we can win those big games and live those big moments. So it doesn’t matter who’s traded, we don’t look at that, we have enough to beat anybody at full strength, and that’s really our mindset, it’s our mentality. We have that confidence, but we just have to go out and do it.”

Patriots

Dolphins senior personnel executive Reggie McKenzie recalled being in the Packers’ draft room when he was with the organization in the late 90s under Hall of Fame GM Ron Wolf, the father of Patriots’ director of scouting Eliot Wolf. The former Packers’ general manager had McKenzie give his son, Eliot, scouting assignments when he was in high school. 

“I remember his dad asking me, ‘Can you get him some guys to write up and see what you think. He thinks he wants to be a scout.’ So I gave him about five players to write up and he attacked that like Ray Lewis attacking an ‘iso’ play at the goal line,” McKenzie said, via Mike Reiss of ESPN. 

McKenzie gave Wolf honest feedback on his scouting work as a high schooler.

“I had sifted through them and gave them back to him. We went over them a little bit and of course, his dad had asked me, ‘How do you think he did?’ I told him that I put some corrections on there and we talked it over, but he’s going to be OK,” McKenzie said.

Patriots owner Robert Kraft thinks Wolf brings “good pedigree” as a personnel executive. 

“I think Eliot has good training, good pedigree,” Kraft said. “We’re starting new chapters in our development as we evolve here. I like the young people we have doing this and I’ve encouraged them to be collaborative.”