2022 AFC East Roundup: Week 2

Week 1 of the 2022 season came with a lot of ups and downs for the AFC East. With the Bills winning 31-10 against the LA Rams after a huge second half, and the Miami Dolphins beating the New England Patriots 21-7 in what was, mostly, a slow game for both teams. Here’s the AFC East standings after one week:

Buffalo Bills

• DT Ed Oliver suffered an ankle injury in Thursday nights win. After the game, Oliver said he’s “fine”, and that he just rolled it over. On Friday, HC Sean McDermott said he’s still feeling some soreness, but we haven’t received an update on his injury since then.
• After the game, Von Miller said Odell Beckham Jr. told him he was going to join the winner of the Rams-Bills game. OBJ is still recovering from a torn ACL he suffered in the Super Bowl, and he likely won’t be back until November/December.

Miami Dolphins

• Undrafted CB Kader Kohou had himself a great debut yesterday, totaling a forced fumble on Nelson Agholor, and the game-sealing pass deflection to close out the division win.
• The Dolphins will have a tough test coming up in the next few weeks. They play the Baltimore Ravens, Buffalo Bills, and Cincinnati Bengals to close out the first month of the season. Miami will need better OL play to keep up with those high powered offenses.

New York Jets

• The Jets offense had a difficult day against the Ravens defense, with Joe Flacco throwing the ball 59 times, and Michael Carter getting just 10 rushes despite a good performance.
• HC Robert Saleh expects QB Zach Wilson (knee) to be out until their Week 4 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
• The Jets kicking woes continue for what seems like the 10th straight year, as new kicker Greg Zuerlein missed a 45-yard field goal and an extra point in the 24-9 loss.

New England Patriots

• The Patriots offense didn’t seem to get much better this year. One of the reasons for that could be first-year offensive play caller Matt Patricia. Patricia was announced as the offensive play caller by NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport before the game… and he was a big disappointment.

• WR Kendrick Bourne was seemingly benched for the game. This confused many, including his teammates. In a summer where we saw Bourne get kicked out of practice, struggle in 11-on-11 work and not play a preseason game, he may have lost favor among the Patriots coaches. Bourne totaled 800 yards and five TDs last year.
• Yesterday, the Patriots announced Mac Jones suffered a back injury during the game, and that he went in for X-Rays. Bill Belichick wouldn’t give the media an update, but he did travel back to Foxborough with the team.

Featured Image: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images