AFC East Rumors: Robinson, Sanders, Coleman, Bills

Last year, the Dolphins added first-round pass rusher Chop Robinson to their defense behind starters Jaelan Phillips and Bradley Chubb. Chubb ended up missing the entire season with a torn ACL, pushing Emmanuel Ogbah into a full-time starting role. Phillips also suffered a season-ending injury a few games into the season, and while more experienced names like Quinton Bell and Tyus Bowser earned starts in place of Phillips, Robinson dominated the defensive snap share for the rest of the season.

Once Robinson started getting a lion’s share of the snaps on defense, he started to find his footing at the NFL level. After going sackless in his first seven games, Robinson tallied six over his next eight games. With Chubb, Phillips, and new veteran Matt Judon in place this year, Robinson’s time on defense has been limited again, and as a result, so has his production.

Robinson’s strong rookie stretch likely made Miami a bit more comfortable with trading Phillips away earlier this year, and according to Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald, there’s a belief among the staff that making space for Robinson to get more consistent snaps will help him return to the form he showed midway through his rookie campaign. Now that he’s come back from a recent concussion, he’s starting to show exactly that. In today’s win over the Saints, Robinson logged 1.5 sacks, his first since Week 2.

Here are a few other rumors coming out of the AFC East:

• Also in Miami, Jackson reported last month on the status of veteran kicker Jason Sanders, who has spent the entire season to this point on injured reserve with a designation to return. Per Jackson, Dolphins special teams coordinator Craig Aukerman said he doesn’t know if Sanders is close to returning or even if Sanders will kick for the team at all this season.
• Bills wide receiver Keon Coleman appeared in his first game in three weeks today after being a healthy scratch in the team’s last two contests. Coleman’s healthy scratch against the Buccaneers two weeks ago was a disciplinary measure to punish Coleman’s recent tardiness, but per Joe Buscaglia of The Athletic, Coleman’s healthy scratch last week against the Texans was not discipline related. Head coach Sean McDermott clarified that Coleman was scratch for that game because of the short runup to their Thursday night matchup.
• The Bills ended up staying put during the NFL’s trade deadline this year, but it was reportedly not for lack of trying. According to Tim Graham of The Athletic, general manager Brandon Beane was willing to restructure multiple contracts in order to facilitate trades. Beane and Co. had already reworked cornerback Taron Johnson‘s contract, and he arranged to have others ready to rework in case it may help move trades along. Unfortunately for Beane and Buffalo, though, calls on many of those players didn’t come until the day of the deadline, and deals that require a new contract are required to be done the Monday...