NFL Notes: Bills, Tyrod Taylor, Colts, Redskins, Saints

Bills

Bills GM Doug Whaley mentioned that QB Tyrod Taylor‘s recent hip surgery won’t factor into whether they’ll pick up his option before free agency.

“Let me say this, all the prognostication is saying that it’s going to be something that will never play into it,” Whaley said, via the Buffalo News. “Medical things, you never know, but we’re confident that no matter what, we’re going to make a decision on the best for the Buffalo Bills.”

Whaley added that they’re confident that they’ll be able to re-sign a lot of their free agents in the coming months.

“I mean, the number seems pretty exorbitant, but when you look at it, a lot of them aren’t guys that aren’t going to be starters,” Whaley said. “We’ve got (cornerback Stephen) Gilmore, Robert Woods, (running back Mike) Gillislee’s restricted, (punter) Colton Schmidt’s restricted, so basically there’s three starters, if you count Colton Schmidt, and a backup. The rest of those guys, we brought in for backup depth purposes and they’ve played extremely well, and that’s a compliment to our pro personnel department. But we feel we have confidence that we can get a lot of those guys back on extended contracts.”

• Mike Rodak of ESPN mentions that it’s hard to impending free agent OLB Lorenzo Alexander being a system fit for new HC Sean McDermott.
• We have Alexander featured in our Top 100 – 2017 Free Agents list.

Colts

• The Colts announced Wednesday that they’ve hired Sanjay Lal as their new WRs coach.

Redskins

Redskins HC Jay Gruden was asked if WR Josh Doctson has made significant progress in his recovery from an Achilles injury to which he replied: “Not really.”

“I saw him running in the pool the other day, which is exciting,” Gruden said. “We’re going to take it slow with him. I think month of February, I think is very important for his progress and then we’ll see where he’s at.”

• According to Master Tesfatsion of the Washington Post, the Redskins are still hoping to retain assistant defensive backs Aubrey Pleasant on their coaching staff. However, due to a contract dispute, Washington is now seeking other options.

Saints

Saints GM Mickey Loomis mentioned that “we value free agency” and they plan to be aggressive this year.

“We like to be aggressive in free agency and we like to supplement our team,” Loomis said, via ESPN.com. “We value it in terms of building our roster, creating depth, as opposed to just going out and signing necessarily one or two guys.”