Bills

Buffalo quickly became enamored with HC Joe Brady after the initial interview. Brady, who was the team’s offensive coordinator, not only had a great knowledge of the offensive staff but also had a vision defensively and the personnel that he wanted in place, SI’s Albert Breer said.

Breer added a detail during Brady’s interview that stuck out to the leadership group.

“One line from his interview that stuck out to those in the room, in assessing defenses: ‘This actually stresses me out, seeing this in the box, and it’s actually this. You can see it in Josh. Allen, of course, was in the room for that. And, interestingly enough, the coordinator he picked for his defense, Jim Leonhard, would come from the team that ousted Buffalo.”

Breer added that the team’s only request of Brady was to add an experienced head coach to the staff who could serve as a sounding board, which led them to hire former Panthers HC John Fox.

• Joe Buscaglia of The Athletic points to WR Curtis Samuel as a potential cap cut, as it would add over $6 million to the team’s salary cap.

Jets

• Zack Rosenblatt of The Athletic believes the Jets might use a tag on RB Breece Hall before free agency. He says the feeling is that Hall wants to test free agency, so using a tag would prevent him from leaving for nothing.
• Rosenblatt notes Hall is expected to be a coveted player if he hits the open market due to the lack of depth at the RB position in free agency. 
• Ultimately, he feels they need to use a tag on Hall to either trade him this offseason or at the upcoming deadline so they can recoup an asset for a talented player if they don’t work out a long-term deal.
• Rosenblatt notes the Jets’ projected $79.7 million in cap space to show they can absorb the hit of whatever tag they use on Hall. 
• In terms of an extension, Rosenblatt thinks Hall would command anywhere from $11 million to $14 million per year, which is in the range of guys from Rams RB Kyren Williams to Colts RB Jonathan Taylor.
• For trade compensation, Rosenblatt doesn’t think they will want to move him for anything less than a third-round pick, which is the same price as at the past deadline.
• Overall, Rosenblatt thinks “it feels likely” the Jets will use the non-exclusive franchise tag or transition tag on Hall to figure out their next steps from there.

Patriots

Patriots HC Mike Vrabel discussed where the team can go next after their Super Bowl loss.

“I like the foundation of it, and we’ll try to improve on it,” Vrabel said, via Mike Reiss of ESPN.  “There’ll be some difficult decisions that we’ll have to make, and we’ll try to do them with the team’s best interest in mind. As always, that’ll never change. As I was taught, we talk about the business of the NFL, we’re looking for the better, younger, cheaper player every day, and the players that we have are trying not to let that happen. And that’s the dynamic. That’s the business of the National Football League. We know there’s going to be transactions that take place … we may disagree, but I think there’s a level of respect there.”

The team will likely look to extend defensive leader CB Christian Gonzalez, who told reporters he is still trying to find his voice in the locker room.

“Been trying to find my voice, my leadership,” Gonzalez said. “Everyone knows I’m not much of a gather the team up and give them a speech [type of leader]. Vrabes has been helping me with that, talking it through with me. Trying to grow.”

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