AFC East Notes: Brady, Brown, Dolphins, Vick

Negotiating with Tom Brady makes commissioner Roger Goodell look soft, Gary Tanguay of CSNNE.com opines. Tanguay believes that news of the talks was leaked by the Patriots quarterback’s camp in an attempt to force Goodell to fold and wipe Brady’s suspension to zero games. Goodell is reportedly being pushed by “a small handful of influential owners” to uphold Brady’s four-game suspension, but attorney Gregg Levy, who participated in the appeal as a legal consultant to Goodell, has been warning the commissioner that it will be hard to make a suspension stick in court. Here’s more from the AFC East..

• Mike Reiss of ESPN.com gives his full endorsement to the Patriots’ signing of cornerback Tarell Brown. If healthy, Reiss believes that Brown can compete for a starting job or, at the very least, he can provide the Pats with veteran depth. Brown broke his foot last December and landed on season-ending injured reserve.
• James Walker of ESPN.com looked at the best values on the Dolphins‘ defense. Linebacker Jelani Jenkins, earning $585K this year, tops the list after he came out of nowhere in 2014, replaced injured linebacker Dannell Ellerbe, and led the Dolphins with 110 tackles. Defensive end Olivier Vernon, making $1.552MM with 21.5 sacks in three seasons, is rated as the second-best value. Cornerback Jamar Taylor, who could wind up as a starter, comes in at No. 3 with his meager salary of $734K.
• Free agent quarterback Michael Vick took to Twitter this week to let teams know that he’s ready to go. The veteran has said that he wants to play for three more seasons, but it’s telling that he remains unsigned in late July. There is reportedly some skepticism around the league that Vick is ready to accept a backup role and to put in the work necessary even when he doesn’t expect to play. The former No. 1 overall pick supposedly didn’t study up on the Jets‘ playbook last season and yielded many of his practice reps to Matt Simms.