Jets’ LB Jonathan Vilma says he wants to be a Jet next year after he recovers from knee surgery. Doctors are now testing him for brain damage possibly suffered during the surgery.

The Jets will be honoring former RB Curtis Martin this Sundaywhen they host the Steelers. The Patriots also have plans to honor Martin by finding former GM Bobby Grier and slapping him repeatedly for letting Martin go.

If the Bills are going to pull a major upset on Sunday night, they’ll have to use all their players, not just WR Lee Evans. Well, duh, you get to use 11 players on the field at once, silly.

One of those players might have to be punt returner Roscoe Parrish, who is on a record pace for the Bills. Of course, counting on your punt returner for help against a team that has punted only 21 times through 9 games might be a stretch.

Eagles’ coach Andy Reid is not taking the 0-9 Dolphins lightly. But then again, judging by Reid’s size he doesn’t take much lightly, except maybe salad or fruit.

The Dolphins are trying not to think about 0-16. They are focusing on one game at a time, knowing they have to get to 0-10 before they can worry about 0-16.

Will the Patriots find motivation in the obvious Pro Bowl voting snubs of Kyle Eckel and Russ Hochstein?

With all the primetime games coming up for the Patriots, will the late nights and short weeks have a detrimental effect on the veteran-ladened Patriots? And, more importantly, will somebody be TiVo-ing Matlock for them?

It was a quiet Sunday in the AFC East as the Jets and Patriots enjoyed their bye week while the Bills and Dolphins squared off down in Miami. In a game that lived up to the lack of pregame hype, the Bills came back to defeat the Dolphins, 13-10.For 50 minutes it looked like Miami would finally get win number one for 2007, but to the dismay of Phins fans football is a 60 minute game and the Bills were able to score 11 points in the final 9:46 of the game to get the win.

The first half of the game looked more like an NCAA Division 3 contest than a game between professionals, and the scoreboard reflected that with a 3-0 Dolphins lead. Buffalo got on the scoreboard in the third quarter on Chris Kelsay’s sack of Dolphins QB Cleo Lemon in the end zone for a safety. Miami upped their lead to 10-2 on Lemon’s 5 yard run at the end of the 3rd quarter. But Miami was unable to hold on as Buffalo marched down the field for a game-tying scoring drive, capped by Marshawn Lynch’s 3-yard touchdown run and 2-point conversion run. Miami return man Ted Ginn, Jr. ran the ensuing kickoff back for a touchdown, but the play was called back due to a holding penalty. It was as close as Miami would get to winning, as Buffalo was able to get the ball back and drive down the field yet again for Rian Lindell’s game winning FG with 46 second left.

Miami’s offense was led by backup RB Jesse Chatman who ran for 124 yards in place of the injured Ronnie Brown. While the Dolphins didn’t commit a turnover and held the ball for an astonishing 36 minutes and 59 seconds, they were unable to make the big play with the game on the line. Whether it was an ill-timed penalty or the inability to stop a last-minute drive, the team fell short once again.

We’re about due for another “Evans Explosion”, aren’t we? (Don’t worry, Bills fans, that is a good thing for you).

The city of Buffalo would like to see the Bills build a waterfront stadium in the city. As long as they don’t put a dome or retractable roof on it, I am 100% in favor of it.

The Bills know Miami will win a game or two this season, they just don’t want it to happen this weekend. Of course, what do you expect them to say?

Could Ricky Williams be coming back to an NFL team near you? Unless you have an arena team in your neighborhood, I would guess the answer is no.

The Dolphins are looking to turn their season around 180 degrees after their bye week. Lets just hope they stop at 180 and don’t go all the way to 360.

Dolphins LB Zach Thomas is still not cleared to practice due to injuries suffered in a car accident after the Dolphins loss to the Patriots.

After an 0-8 start, the hot topic for Dolphins fans this week is whether or not it is time to give rookie QB John Beck a chance to show what he can do. Well, that and wondering if the Patriots will match the 1972 Dolphins’ perfect season, but there is a lot of time to talk about that one.

The quarterback argument can be broken down fairly simply. If you think the season is a lost cause, Cleo Lemon has done nothing to show that he is a viable option for your “quarterback of the future”, and you want to see if the building blocks for the next several seasons can handle the NFL game, then you are in the Beck camp. If you think going to the rookie QB now is waving the white flag and accepting that an 0-16 season is a real possibility, while the veteran Lemon at least gives Miami a shot at winning a game or two and Beck has no shot at leading the team to a win, then you are pro-Lemon. Each side of the argument has a good case.

Miami spent a second-round draft pick on Beck, the highest the team has selected a QB since taking Dan Marino in the first round of the 1983 draft. One would think that a player selected that high should be considered your future franchise quarterback, and you need to know sooner rather than later whether or not he can handle those expectations. Given that Miami is looking at a probable top-5 selection in next April’s draft, it makes sense to think that the Dolphins’ front office should find out now if they need to use that pick on a better option for future quarterback or if they can go ahead and use that pick to fix one of the countless holes the team has. The upside is that Beck could show he is better suited to running Cam Cameron’s offense than Lemon, and that Beck and first-round pick Tedd Ginn, Jr. could start to develop timing and chemistry that could pay dividends as soon as the 2008 season. The downside, of course, is that Beck could play, well, like a rookie, and turn what is already a weak Dolphins offense into an offense that puts up stats that haven’t been seen since the Providence Steamrollers were playing.

On the other hand, one could argue that sticking with Lemon makes more sense right now. Lemon has shown at times that he has a decent grasp on Cameron’s offense, and one could make the argument that the more he plays, the better he will be. Also, Miami has a couple of “winnable” games over the next few weeks with matchups against the Eagles and Jets over the next month. A win or two in those games could give Lemon confidence that helps him blossom in the Miami offense and give the team hope that he could be a potential long-term answer at quarterback. Another thing to consider is whether or not Beck is completely learned in Cameron’s offense. If he only knows, say, 75% of the playbook, does it make sense to play him now, or should the team give him more time to get the offense down pat? Then there is the team morale issue. Going to the rookie at quarterback could show the locker room that the team has officially given up on the season, and that could lead to dissention in the ranks, especially among the older players. Would the Dolphins front office risk losing the veteran players, especially in the first year of the head coach’s tenure? It would certainly be a risky proposition for the team.

All things being equal, I think at this point in time it makes sense for Miami to stay with Lemon, at least going into the game this Sunday against Buffalo. Division games are never easy to forecast, and it is entirely possible that Miami could catch Buffalo off-guard and spring the upset. I think it is more likely that would happen with a more familiar face at quarterback, although I would expect the coaches to have a very, very short leash on Lemon. If he falters through the first quarter or half, do not be surprised to see the potential future of Miami’s offense on the field this Sunday.

It was another crazy week in the AFC East, and once again we have two teams celebrating victories while the other two mull over a tough loss or a tough day watching the games on the couch. In the “Game of the Millennium” down in Indianapolis, the Patriots prevailed over the Colts, while up in Buffalo the Bills continued their hot streak with a win over the hapless Bengals. It was more of the same for the Jets as they dropped a heartbreaker to the Redskins in overtime.

The game of the week in the AFC East, if not the sporting world in general, was an epic clash between the Patriots and Colts. Thanks to a 4th quarter rally, the Patriots were able to keep the undefeated season intact with a tough 24-20 win over the previously undefeated Colts. The Colts defense made life difficult for the Pats early as Tom Brady was pressured more than he had been all season long, and it led to two interceptions from the Patriots QB. The Patriots defense did just a good a job, employing their “bend but don’t break” philosophy to perfection, forcing the Colts to settle for FG attempts on two early drives deep into Patriot territory.

Things looked bleak for New England after Peyton Manning’s fourth quarter touchdown run made it a 20-10 ballgame, but Brady and the offense finally broke out and put 14 points on the scoreboard in a flash. The defense held on and forced a Peyton Manning fumbleception by Rosevelt Colvin, and the game was over. Just watching the game left me drained and exhausted, so I can only imagine how the players felt.

In a bit of intriguing news, the television broadcast of the game picked up some strange crowd noise during a Patriots possession. The NFL is looking into this matter as it is not the first time the Colts have been accused of piping in “artificial” crowd noise. If there is evidence of any foul play by the Colts during home games, the resulting punishment and media backlash could make the punishment of the Patriots for the spying scandal look like a slap on the wrist.

The other AFC East team who is actually winning this year pushed their current winning streak to three games as the Bills upended the Bengals, 33-21.Rookie RB Marshawn Lynch did everything except serve water and orange slices on the sideline as he ran for 153 yards and a touchdown and also threw an 8-yard touchdown pass to TE Robert Royal. Backup QB J.P. Losman was effective for Buffalo, throwing for 295 yards and a touchdown. The Bills defense did a great job slowing down a potentially explosive Bengals offense, holding star WRs Chad Johnson and T. J. Houshmandzadeh to under 100 yards receiving each. Up next for the Bills is a divisional game against the rival Dolphins.

In the Meadowlands it was, sadly, more of the same for the Jets as they dropped a 23-20 overtime loss to the Washington Redskins.Once again the lack of a running game hampered the Jets offense, and second-year QB Kellen Clemens was unable to make up the difference. The Jets rallied to tie the game at 20 with 10 seconds left, but were unable to do anything in overtime even after a long completion to Jerricho Cotchery on the opening play. The Jets fall to 1-8 on the season and things have certainly not gone according to plan this year for Gang Green.