Let’s take a look at some notes from the AFC as we wait for the early slate of Sunday’s games to get underway:
- Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald believes Dolphins QB Ryan Tannehill is now entering the most important stretch of his career. He’s a fifth-year signal-caller playing under an offensive savant in head coach Adam Gase and facing an unprecedented 44-day homestand that features four eminently winnable games. If he cannot excel over the next month, it is difficult to believe that he will ever excel.
- We learned last week that the Patriots tried to trade for Terrelle Pryor prior to the 2015 season, but it does not appear that anyone other than the Browns will get to reap the rewards of Pryor’s success anytime soon. Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets that Pryor is one of the only players that Cleveland will not consider trading as it continues to build for the future. Pryor is apparently pretty comfortable with the Browns, too, as he recently expressed his desire for a contract extension.
- Paxton Lynch may be starting for the Broncos this week, but James Palmer of the NFL Network confirms (via Twitter) what head coach Gary Kubiak has been saying all week: that Trevor Siemian‘s job is secure. Denver’s coaching staff understandably loves Siemian and hopes to have him ready for Thursday night’s tilt with San Diego.
- We heard reports earlier today that Jets quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick would be playing for his job this afternoon against Pittsburgh and that the team was prepared to hand the starting job to Geno Smith if Fitzpatrick struggles. According to Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News, however, head coach Todd Bowles is ignoring the calls for Fitz to be benched, though he realizes that the Harvard product must improve soon. Bowles said, “[Fitzpatrick] can’t put the game on his shoulders and try to be Superman. If it’s not there, it’s not there. Whether we take the sack or we throw it out of bounds or we punt and move on, ball security is what wins in this league. The big difference between last year’s first quarter and this year’s first quarter is that we got a ton of turnovers (in 2015). And this year, we gave up a bunch of turnovers.”