Bills
Bills RB James Cook is ready to get to work, with GM Brandon Beane noting that Cook’s extension means a lot to both himself and the franchise.
“We paid now, so let’s go play football,” Cook said of his hold-in. “It was not more so it would help. Just trying to protect myself. Just trying to stay healthy and just get everything done before I can go out there and play with a clear mindset and just be locked in.”
“This is the new young core that we’re putting our money into,” Beane said. “We want to draft, develop, and re-sign. This is another draft pick we’re proud of, and we’re excited to get extended. He’s got a skillset we want to maintain in this offense. There was never a case of not wanting to extend him.”
“Once we got him back on the practice field, we really worked hard [on Tuesday],” Beane added. “I think it was roughly 11 o’clock or so last night, where we were able to say both sides were good with this…We also want to use our other weapons and keep him as fresh as possible. We think that’s the best utilization of him, and we just look at, I know he gets put in the running back room or guys get put in a tight end room, but it’s just trying to find a variety of weapons and skill sets and he’s got a skill set that we wanted to maintain and keep with this offense.”
Dolphins
“I thought there were some really good things he did, some things he could do better,” McDaniel said, via Marcel Louis-Jacques of ESPN. “Basically, the journey of a quarterback is you have to learn to be able to take whatever reps you have, work on your own and apply it to your game. … It was cool to give him a couple opportunities that he made the most of.”
“I’m definitely not going to overreact to results, considering I talk about the process all the time,” McDaniel added. “I think the biggest thing is that you find things to see if guys can improve upon. Both of those guys have done a great job, and Tua has led the way. I’m not concerned about that at all. Guys are going to keep working and we need them to have their best next week.”
Ewers fell to the seventh round of the draft but says that he felt comfortable with the rest of the offense in the team’s second preseason game.
“As a whole, I think we were just overall more comfortable,” Ewers noted. “Game 1, we kind of got our jitters out, and out here it felt like we were just able to go out and play our game and perform at a good level. There’s obviously a lot of room to grow — myself, I missed a couple throws, missed a couple reads, but there’s a lot of stuff to learn from this game.”
Jets
Jets DE Jermaine Johnson isn’t buying into the narrative that some athletes don’t return to normal until more than a year after surgery for a torn Achilles’ tendon.
“I don’t make excuses,” Johnson said, via Rich Cimini of ESPN. “In my opinion, I’ve got a cheat code in my leg now. I’ve got a stronger Achilles, and I’m faster. I take pride in being able to take over two gaps — the C and the D gap. If there’s a tight end in front of me, there should be a no-play. That has to be the standard for me.”
On the offensive side of the ball in New York, RB Breece Hall is still waiting for a contract extension as he has seen both James Cook and Kyren Williams receive them from their respective teams.
Hall is patient and believes that Cook and Williams both deserved extensions before him.
“No, because they’ve both done much more in this league than I have,” Hall said. “They’ve been in better situations, and they’re both very good players. Obviously, I feel like I’m just as talented as anyone, but those guys are two really good running backs, and they deserve their payday, and they got what they deserve.”
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