AFC Notes: Bills, Dolphins, Jets

Bills

Bills veteran CB Xavier Rhodes is stepping into a more prominent role on the team’s defense due to injury but doesn’t seem to have any concerns.

“When my opportunity strikes I’m just going to go out there, and play, and be me,” Rhodes said, via BillsWire.com.

• Bills S Damar Hamlin was fined $4,806 for unnecessary roughness for the hit that concussed Patriots WR Jakobi Meyers and saw Hamlin be ejected from the game. (Mike Reiss)

Dolphins

Dolphins HC Mike McDaniel doesn’t think that their loss to the 49ers in Week 13 was a direct result of QB Tua Tagovailoa‘s struggles but is aware that the quarterback thinks he could’ve played better. 

“I think this is such a cool opportunity for each and every player that this is part of the NFL experience, is you can have some hot streaks where you’re doing well more often than not, and then you can have a game that there’s a lot more plays that you’d like to have back,” McDaniel said, via ProFootballTalk. “From a football perspective, that’s not — everything that went wrong wasn’t a direct result of the quarterback. It never is exactly like that. However, we all know that he wants to play as well as he can and he thinks that he could have done better in that game. So that is life in the NFL and whether you have seven Super Bowl rings or you haven’t been to a playoff game yet or you’re a rookie, you’re a 10-year vet, you’re a five-year vet; you will always — player, coach, anybody involved — be going through that experience, so that it is not something that, hey, it doesn’t happen to the best ones ever to do it. Every person has to go through that and so your objective is to get better from it, and that’s the world we live in.”

McDaniel doesn’t think that the 49ers did anything specifically to limit Tagovailoa and feels that their windows of opportunity were smaller given San Francisco has a strong defense. 

“No, I think they’re a defense that’s been together for a long time. And good defenses, you have smaller windows and I wouldn’t say anything different. I think the way we look at it is you want to be able to do well against good defenses. That’s the objective if you’re trying to be great yourself. And they force you to truly execute and if you’re not on, they make you pay, in which case they did this past game,” said McDaniel. 

McDaniel feels that they could’ve got their running backs more action in Week 13.

“It really is unfortunate that in a game that they were – it’s a shame that they didn’t get more opportunities to make plays. So I look at that as 100 percent on me to find more ways to involve them in the game and if that means we’re not running the ball, that’s not an excuse. They’re very good receivers. But one of the themes that you’ll hear from the entire team is they look at it the same way where, ‘Okay, well, I do have (opportunities). On those (opportunities), how can we get better or what can we do to make sure that we get more opportunities?’ So I think that’s the way you want your team to work. Ultimate accountability, it’s infectious, and I think they do an unbelievable job with that in that room and have all year.”

Jets

• According to Tom Pelissero, the NFL fined Jets S Jordan Whitehead $15,914 for his hit on Vikings WR Justin Jefferson last week.