AFC East Mailbag: Assessing Jets’ rebuild, Patriots’ play-calling, more

By Henry McKenna
FOX Sports AFC East Writer

There weren’t many starters who played during the first week of the preseason, and that included most of the AFC East’s stars. The weekend’s games provided a platform for bubble players to continue building their case to make the roster. 

That means there weren’t many takeaways about the actual starting units, leaving no shortage of questions about this division as teams commence their second week of preseason.

For our weekly mailbag, we jump into some of the AFC East’s biggest storylines as well as some nitty, gritty items. If you’d like to participate in next week’s edition, please hit me up at @McKennAnalysis on Twitter.

Let’s dive into your questions from the week.

From ​​@gametime41: Obviously, the Jets are a rebuilding team, but in order to compete in the AFC East, what players or positional groups could help us lead to success within the division? What are some ways we could exploit the other teams?

The thing that gives me pause with the Jets is that they’re so young. The offense, in particular, will start the following players whom New York drafted in the past two years: QB Zach Wilson, OG Alijah Vera-Tucker, WRs Elijah Moore and Garrett Wilson and RB Breece Hall. That’s likely five of their 11 offensive starters. 

It’s hard to say what strengths will emerge on offense as these players are still all about potential. They’re unproven. But above all, Wilson must be better. He hopes to return in time for Week 1 after injuring his knee in the preseason. New York’s season — and future prospects as a franchise — depend on his health and development. So the Jets need to find a way to exploit teams by way of his raw arm strength, the tantalizing quality that convinced the Jets to draft him at second overall last year.

On defense, the Jets need a big year from their front seven. Linebackers C.J. Mosley and Quincy Williams combined for an insane 278 tackles last season. They’ll be at the heart of New York’s defense again. But it should also be a huge year for Quinnen Williams, who will help lesser-known but definitely dominant defensive tackle John Franklin-Myers (six sacks in 2021). 

There is a lot of proven talent in that defensive front. And then you add in a healthy Carl Lawson, who missed last year with an Achilles injury, and rookie Jermaine Johnson on the edge.

From @EnragedKermit: Will the Jets defense do better than last year?

The most important defensive statistic, in my opinion, is point allowed. And the Jets were worst in the NFL with 29.6 points allowed per game. They allowed the fourth-most rushing yards in the league, which was in part due to their unimpressive 4.5 yards allowed per carry. It was just as bad in the passing game, with New York giving up the third-most passing yards in the NFL.

It would be strangely impressive if they got worse.

In an attempt to fix the passing defense, the Jets signed cornerback D.J. Reed (three years, $33 million) and safety Jordan Whitehead (two years, $14.5 million). Safety Lamarcus Joyner is coming back from a season-long injury along with Lawson. 

And then there was the draft haul: cornerback Sauce Gardner and Johnson, a versatile edge rusher. Even DE Micheal Clemons, a 2022 fourth-rounder, was an absolute stud in the first preseason game with seven pressures.

Coach Robert Saleh is a defensive-minded coach. He’s clearly pushing to build around a strong unit, and the pieces are starting to fall into place. So the simple answer is: Yes, this defense will get better. But the Jets probably won’t be relevant in 2022 if the defense doesn’t jump into the top 10 — and that would be a surprise.

From @_JakeTHamilton: How have things looked for the Bills without Brian Daboll, so far? Is there any concern the offense could regress a bit without his coaching/scheming?

So far, so good.

Josh Allen has discussed getting to know new offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey in the small but important ways that will help them succeed together. The quarterback is learning Dorsey’s tendencies, philosophies and communication styles. 

During the first week of preseason, Allen listened to how Dorsey called plays for the backup quarterbacks. That should help Allen hear the play, relay it in the huddle and get to the line of scrimmage with efficient timing. And then these two will work on their communication between drives and in the meeting room.

Is Josh Allen under more pressure than Zach Wilson?

Emmanuel Acho, David Helman and Ric Bucher debate whether the Jets’ QB or the Bills’ QB is the under the most pressure in the AFC East.

For the most part, the Bills are setting up both Dorsey and Allen for success.

“Honestly, we’re keeping the same verbiage, same system,” Allen told CBS Sports HQ’s Pete Prisco last week. “Obviously, some different nuances in our offense and different voice in my headset when we’re out there. So it takes some time to get used to, but Dorsey’s doing an unbelievable job.

“He’s putting a lot of really nice concepts for us. And he’s going to have a tough job trying to figure out and piece our guys on the field, because we do have some options now, and it’s good to have the guys that we have.”

The Bills are working on promoting receivers Gabe Davis and Isaiah McKenzie into more prominent roles while seeing if they can make use of rookies like running back James Cook and receiver Khalil Shakir. Those are good problems for Dorsey. The offense seems just fine amid turnover.

But it will be worth monitoring. The Bills expect to win a Super Bowl. Dorsey will technically have to be better than former Bills OC Daboll to win it all. Those are lofty expectations.

From @mjbrait: Who is gonna win the coordinator battle between Joe Judge and Matt Patricia to call offensive plays for the Patriots?

Make what you will of Bill Belichick’s recent comments, but he clarified Monday that there is not a competition between Judge and Patricia.

During the first preseason game, Patricia called plays for the first quarter while quarterback Brian Hoyer was on the field. Then at the end of the first quarter, rookie quarterback Bailey Zappe entered the game, and Judge called plays. It was a bit strange, given that Patricia is expected to call plays in Week 1 of the regular season. 

If it’s not a competition, why not get him more reps in the preseason, given that he’s only called defensive plays in the past?

On Monday, both Judge and Patricia fell in line under Belichick.

“Honestly, it’s just collaborative from that standpoint,” Patricia said. “We follow Coach Belichick’s lead. … We’re all just working together right now.”

And Judge?

“My job is to do whatever [Belichick] says to the best of my ability,” he said Monday.

My bet on what happens: Patricia will end up calling plays, with Judge helping manage personnel and situational play-calling (red zone, third down). Belichick will listen closely over the headset to make sure his vision gets executed properly.

From @gmoney8712: What are the chances Zach Wilson struggles to take his job from Joe Flacco bc of how efficiently Flacco runs the offense / coaches need to win at least a bit this year?

I’d put those chances at 3%. Maybe lower.

Even if Flacco is the better or more consistent quarterback, the Jets can’t waste a season leaning on him. They need to develop Wilson with in-game reps. If he crashes and burns in 2022, New York will know it needs to draft a new quarterback in 2023. 

But playing Flacco would be a massive waste of time for the Jets’ franchise. Wilson needs to play. He needs to turn into the franchise quarterback. And he can’t do that while watching Flacco.

From @DonBlais85: Curious to know what you think of the new rookie quarterback? #ForeverNE

Zappe, a fourth-round pick out of Western Kentucky, faced an unusually high volume of blitzes in the preseason opener. While most teams will drop into vanilla coverage and deploy uncomplicated three- or four-man pass rushes, the New York Giants decided to pressure Zappe. (Belichick was visibly unhappy with New York’s decision, in part because he probably hadn’t spent much time preparing his rookie or his offensive line for blitz packages.) 

Even so, Zappe settled in nicely. He seemed to grow more comfortable with the blitzes — and it helped that the quality of competition dropped throughout the game.

“[Zappe] showed a lot of grit,” Hoyer said postgame on Thursday. “That’s not easy to do in your first NFL experience, especially with what they were throwing at us defensively, a lot of blitz zero, a lot of tight man coverage, some overload blitzes, so some stuff that we haven’t seen, and he hung in there, made some great throws.”

In particular, the Patriots had to be happy with Zappe’s touchdown pass. Despite a tricky blitz package and an unblocked rusher in his face, Zappe lofted a ball that receiver Lil’Jordan Humphrey tracked down in the end zone. It was an impressive decision in the face of a five-man rush.

From @gmoney8712: How likely is it that the patriots carry 6 WRs (not including Matthew Slater)?

The Patriots are definitely going to carry DeVante Parker and Tyquan Thornton. They’re almost definitely going to roster Kendrick Bourne and Jakobi Meyers. They might consider trading Nelson Agholor, but his salary is so high that the Patriots might struggle to deal him. (Would they cut him?)

Then there are the true bubble players: Tre Nixon, Kristian Wilkerson and Humphrey. I think the Patriots will roster just five receivers. I’ll hold off predicting exactly which ones — for now.

From @icyphoenix36: Jabrill Peppers was in my opinion a really overlooked signing by New England in free agency. He played almost everywhere on defense last season for the Giants. But what position should we expect him to be playing in New England?

The Patriots did not let him play during the first preseason game, which indicates they view him as a roster lock. He might not play a huge amount at safety, given the Patriots have Devin McCourty, Kyle Dugger and Adrian Phillips. Those three are at the core of what New England does defensively. 

But Peppers is built like a linebacker with the ability to play safety. Belichick will figure out something to do with Peppers. In the meantime, he’ll contribute on special teams in coverage and returns, potentially as a returner.

So … maybe everywhere? We’ll see.

Prior to joining FOX Sports as the AFC East reporter, Henry McKenna spent seven years covering the Patriots for USA TODAY Sports Media Group and Boston Globe Media. Follow him on Twitter at @McKennAnalysis.