AFC East Thread

Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo said on Tuesday that there’s no doubt in his mind that Jacoby Brissett is best suited to start at quarterback for the team right now, but that he is planning to have Brissett compete with first-round pick Drake Maye as the team heads toward the regular season.

Brissett got his chance to react to Mayo’s pronouncement when he spoke to reporters from the team’s training camp on Tuesday and he said his experience in the NFL has left him with an understanding that “somebody else is trying to take your job.” Brissett said he welcomes the chance to show that he’s the right guy for the job.

“Obviously, that’s the ultimate goal. Obviously, you don’t take things like that lightly,” Brissett said, via NESN. “I understand this league, and I understand how every day is a competition, and I look forward to that and I feed off that. Looking to go out there and prove it every day.”

Maye was drafted third overall because the Patriots believe he’s the best quarterback to lead them in the future. Figuring out when he’s also the best choice to lead them in the present will be one of Mayo’s first big decisions as an NFL coach.

 

Veteran edge rusher Haason Reddick did not report to Jets training camp this week and head coach Robert Saleh addressed his absence during a press conference on Wednesday.

Reddick was acquired from the Eagles in a trade for a conditional 2026 third-round pick after failing to sign a new contract with the Eagles. The Jets went through with the trade knowing that Reddick was unhappy with his pact and they reportedly offered to add some 2024 compensation to the deal while waiting to see how he performed before addressing future seasons.

Reddick declined, but the Jets’ expectation was reportedly that he’d still attend offseason workouts and training camp. Neither of those things happened, but Saleh said he’s not “overly concerned” with the absence right now.

“He’s a veteran,” Reddick said, via SNY. “He’s been with multiple teams, he’s played multiple positions, he’s had success multiple way. At this point in his career, I’m sure he knows exactly what he needs to do to prepare himself to play football. So, I’m not overly concerned.”

It’s unclear what might happen to solve the impasse and get Reddick into camp for his first work with the Jets, but, for now, others will have the chance to catch the eye of Saleh and the rest of the coaching staff.

 

On Friday, the Patriots abruptly cut receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster, despite owing him $7 million fully guaranteed in 2024.

On Sunday, coach Jerod Mayo was asked about the decision to move on from JuJu.

“Yeah, it was a decision between [executive V.P. of player personnel] Eliot [Wolf] and myself, really to give the younger guys an opportunity to go out there and get more reps and show what they can do,” Mayo said.

Mayo was asked whether Smith-Schuster’s knee injury was a factor, given that it seemed to impact his explosiveness.

“I mean, that’s part of it,” Mayo said. “At the same time, we just want him to get healthy. He still has some good ball left in him and I wish him nothing but the best.”

The Patriots benefit from Smith-Schuster being healthy and playing, because they’ll get a dollar-for-dollar credit as to anything he makes with another team this season. Since he was released, however, there have been no reports (yet) of other teams pursuing him.

 

The Buffalo Bills and Chase Claypool experiment has come to an end before it really even started. The team announced that his season has come to an end along with two others, including backup quarterback Shane Buechele (neck). Buechele was injured in Buffalo's preseason opener against the Chicago Bears on Saturday, a game the Bills lost 33-6.

In a third and final move, wide receiver Bryan Thompson was waived/injured by the team.

Claypool, 26, turned some heads during spring practices but suffered a toe injury and has not practiced since late July. He never got his footing with the Bills during training camp because of the injury.

Buechele, 26, finished the Saturday contest as the team’s third quarterback. He entered the game after Mitchell Trubisky. Starter Josh Allen only played the first quarter of the loss to Chicago.

In corresponding moves, Buffalo added three players to their roster. Receivers Damiere Byrd and Deon Cain were just noted as of Tuesday morning. The third of the trio is quarterback Ben DiNucci, whose signing was reported on Monday. All three signed one-year deals.

 

Four months ago, the New York Jets agreed to trade a conditional third-round draft pick to the Philadelphia Eagles in exchange for pass rusher Haason Reddick. The Jets knew Reddick wanted a new contract, but they acquired him before working out a deal.

After acquiring the pass rusher, New York's front office knew they could not afford to pay both Riddick and incumbent John Franklin-Myers. So the Jets made a short-sighted decision and gave Franklin-Myers permission to seek a trade. Because they needed to clear salary cap space, New York had little leverage in negotiations and the Denver Broncos took advantage of that. During the NFL draft, the Broncos agreed to trade a future sixth-round pick to the Jets in exchange for Franklin-Myers, a bargain price.

New York traded for Reddick before getting a new deal done and they shipped out his predecessor before giving Reddick an extension. Since then, Reddick has refused to report while in a contract dispute with the Jets, and he officially asked for a trade on Monday.

It's a messy situation in New York that the Jets created themselves, and the Broncos benefited from it. Franklin-Myers is gone and Reddick is yet to join. Meanwhile, Denver and Philadelphia couldn't be happier.

 

Things are getting ugly for the Buffalo Bills and they haven't even officially played a meaningful game yet.

A whopping 17 players have made their way on the team's injury report - almost a third of what would be the team's 53-man roster. With so many players injured, it's hard to determine just who will make the roster, and who could start the year on the PUP list or IR. Making matters even worse for Buffalo is that their injuries are not just from a single game or event.

Linebacker Matt Milano was lost for an extended period of time due to a torn biceps at practice. Mitch Trubisky is dealing with a knee injury suffered in Saturday's preseason game, and Damar Hamlin is dealing with a hamstring injury from last week's joint practice. It seems no one is safe on the Bills roster when it comes to major injuries for starters and key role players alike.

It's almost impossible to think that almost a third of the roster could be hurt at this time without meaningful games played, but that's the reality the Bills are dealing with.

 

Injuries are inevitable for NFL players. It really is a war of attrition, and the older a player is, the more likely his body will eventually rebel.

For Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who turns 41 in early December, the rebellion began early. His knee has been swelling, which aging knees tend to do. He also has had an ankle injury. He now has a hamstring problem.

Rodgers dismissed his presence on this week’s Wednesday injury report with both knee and hamstring issues by saying that any condition for which the player receives treatment must be disclosed. However, he was limited in practice. Plenty of players who get treatment for injuries have those injuries disclosed — and they fully participate in practice.

Rodgers acknowledged he has swelling in his knee from time to time. Asked whether the injuries are hampering him during games, he said, “Not really.”

“I feel good on game days,” Rodgers said.

We’ll see if that continues. The Jets have their second Sunday-to-Thursday turnaround of 2024 in the next week. After visiting the Patriots, they host the Texans on Thursday night.

These two games are critical to the Jets’ fortunes. Win both, and 4-5 becomes the starting point for a run. Lose both, and 2-7 becomes night-night for New York.

Regardless, if they’re going to have any chance to turn things around, they need Rodgers. Currently, it feels like he’s doing everything he can to hold the lower half of his body together for as long as he can.

 

Except now your so called science ended up being wrong.

 

The whole medical community is rigged. When a professor or researcher chooses his interns he choose ones that think exactly like him. It's breeds a lack of differing views. So when a doctor or researchers dares to step out of the box, the "main stream" come after him and label them a denier or he's spreading "disinformation" - whatever that is.