AFC East

The New England Patriots have struggled on offense all season long, and it has resulted in the team sitting last in the AFC East with a 6-6 record.

The Patriots are traveling to face the Arizona Cardinals on Monday night, and they must find a way to win in order to stay alive in a tough AFC playoff race. However, the Cardinals don't seem too concerned with a lackluster New England offense coming to town.

Cardinals defensive coordinator Vance Joseph told reporters Thursday that he believes the New England offense has taken a conservative approach this year, which doesn't surprise him because Matt Patricia, a defensive specialist, is calling the plays.

The Patriots enter Monday's game averaging 318.9 yards per game, which is one of the worst marks in the NFL. They're averaging 214.0 yards passing and 104.9 yards rushing per game.

Arizona's defense, meanwhile, is allowing 356.2 yards per game, including 110.8 rushing (eighth-best).

If Patricia continues taking a conservative approach. New England may be out of the postseason for the second time in three seasons.

Amid rumors that the Dallas Cowboys may not want to pursue Odell Beckham Jr. because of concerns about his recovery from a torn ACL, the Buffalo Bills could swoop in to sign the three-time Pro Bowler.

Appearing on The Pat McAfee Show on Thursday, Bills defensive end Von Miller said members of the organization had an "amazing" dinner with Beckham at Josh Allen's house last week.

The Cowboys had long been viewed as the favorite to sign Beckham. Both sides were not being subtle about their mutual admiration for each other.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones sounded optimistic about potentially adding Beckham during a Nov. 22 appearance on 105.3 The Fan (h/t USA Today's Lorenzo Reyes):

"When you look at a player, and the more you expend for a player, you can go up to where that's two players or that's three players. It's financial, but it's really not. At the end of the day, it's the capability, the athletic ability, the availability up against paying a lot to one player or paying lesser for two players. It's one way to measure it, so it's all relative. The main thing is what everybody would agree with: if you can improve this team right now and it's within reason, you should do it. We've got a chance."

Beckham received a hero's welcome from the Dallas crowd when he attended a Mavericks game with Micah Parsons and Trevon Diggs on Monday night.

On Tuesday, ESPN's Ed Werder reported the Cowboys have "concerns" about Beckham's physical and that his ACL hasn't progressed enough to ensure he would be able to play before mid-January and "there is a possibility" he won't get back on the field until the 2023 regular season.

Jones said Tuesday on 105.3 The Fan (h/t Pro Football Talk's Josh Alper) he's "not confident at all" about signing Beckham without an in-person workout.

In addition to the Bills and Cowboys, Beckham also met with the New York Giants last week.

The Bills lost Miller for the season on Wednesday when head coach Sean McDermott announced he had surgery to repair a torn ACL. The eight-time Pro Bowler leads the team in quarterback hits (12) and sacks (eight).

Since the Bills won't be able to find a defensive player of Miller's caliber to finish the season, perhaps they can try to upgrade the offense by pairing Beckham with Stefon Diggs and Gabriel Davis.

Of course, this depends on Beckham's ability to get on the field. It's unclear at this point if it will happen this season.

Beckham won a Super Bowl as a member of the Los Angeles Rams last season. He finished 2021 with 44 receptions, 537 yards and five touchdowns in 14 games between the Rams and Cleveland Browns.

Buffalo Bills pass-rusher Von Miller believes he has a lot left to his career despite suffering a torn ACL two weeks ago, as he told The Pat McAfee Show on Thursday:

"It's nothing but work, you're never out of the fight, man," Miller said. "I plan on playing four, five, six more years, and this is the route I had to take to get there."

Bills head coach Sean McDermott announced Wednesday that Miller would miss the rest of the 2022 season after tearing his ACL in Week 12. The 33-year-old had eight sacks in 11 games.

Returning to the NFL level after a serious knee injury is difficult, but Miller has a timeline to get back on the field and is ready to put the work in. He also suffered a torn ACL in 2013 and missed the entire 2020 season because of an ankle injury.

Of course, Miller has little to prove with a resume that should put him in the Hall of Fame even if he doesn't play another down.

The 2011 second overall pick was the Defensive Rookie of the Year and has been selected to eight Pro Bowls and earned three first-team All-Pro honors. He has won two Super Bowl titles, including last year with the Los Angeles Rams and with the Denver Broncos in the 2015 season when he was named MVP of Super Bowl 50.

Miller's 123.5 career sacks rank first among active players, and he has tallied at least eight sacks in each of his 10 seasons with at least 10 games played.

The veteran, who signed a six-year, $120 million deal with the Bills in March, appears determined to add to his accolades.

Buffalo Bills defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier headlines the 2023 Black College Football Hall of Fame class.

The Black College Football Hall of Fame announced Frazier, Henry Lawrence, Albert Lewis, Jim Marsalis, Tyrone McGriff, Elijah Pitts, Johnie Walton and Pete Richardson were selected for induction among a group of 25 finalists.

Notable finalists who didn't make the cut this year include Antoine Bethea, Verlon Biggs, Joe Adams and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie.

The class is determined from a vote by the 11-person selection committee, which is made up of journalists, historians, commentators and members of the Black College Football Hall of Fame.

"This Class is another representation of the immense football talent that has played at historically black colleges and universities," Black College Football Hall of Fame co-founder Doug Williams said of the 2023 class. "Several of these players were college All-Americans, high NFL draft picks and Pro Bowlers."

Frazier had a five-year playing career in the NFL with the Chicago Bears from 1981 to 1985. He won a Super Bowl in his final season as a player and as an assistant coach on Tony Dungy's staff with the Indianapolis Colts in the 2006 season.

Prior to entering the NFL, Frazier played college football at Alcorn State from 1978 to 1980. He recorded 20 interceptions and was named to the All-SWAC Defensive first team in 1979.

Lawrence was a standout player at Florida A&M before becoming a first-round draft pick by the Oakland Raiders in 1974. He was a two-time Pro Bowler and three-time Super Bowl champion during his 13-year NFL career.

Lewis played cornerback at Grambling State from 1979 to 1982. He had a successful 16-year NFL career that included stints with the Raiders and Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs inducted him into their Hall of Fame in 2007.

Marsalis went to college at Tennessee A&I (now known as Tennessee State). The Chiefs selected him No. 23 overall in the 1969 NFL draft. He was named to the Pro Bowl and won a Super Bowl as a rookie.

McGriff was a three-time All-American offensive lineman at Florida A&M from 1977 to 1979. He also began his coaching career at his alma mater as an assistant in 1986 after his playing career came to an end.

McGriff died at the age of 42 due to a heart attack in December 2000.

Pitts played football at Philander Smith in Little Rock, Arkansas. He won five NFL championships and two Super Bowls as a player with the Green Bay Packers.

Walton played quarterback and served as head coach at Elizabeth City State College. He was named to the All-CIAA team as a player in 1968. The North Carolina native went 25-24-2 in two stints as head coach for the Vikings.

Richardson spent 22 seasons as a head coach from 1988 to 2009. He began his college coaching career at Winston-Salem State, going 41-14-1 with three playoff appearances.

After leaving Winston-Salem State to take the same position at Southern University, Richardson won 128 games in 17 years. He led the Jaguars to the Heritage Bowl six times, with four victories.

The 2023 Black College Football Hall of Fame class will be inducted at a ceremony at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta on June 10.

Former Buffalo Bills and San Diego State punter Matt Araiza will not face criminal charges after a then-17-year-old girl said he and his former teammates Zavier Leonard and Nowlin “Pa’a” Ewaliko raped her in 2021, per Lyndsay Winkley and Teri Figueroa of The San Diego Union-Tribune.

"Ultimately, prosecutors determined it is clear the evidence does not support the filing of criminal charges and there is no path to a potential criminal conviction," the San Diego District Attorney's Office said in a statement. "Prosecutors can only file charges when they ethically believe they can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt."

Leonard and Ewaliko also won't face criminal charges.

The woman, now 18, said that Araiza, then 21, originally had sex with her in the yard of a house just off the San Diego State campus on Oct. 17, 2021. She said he then brought her inside the house, where she was raped by Araiza, Leonard and Ewaliko.

Per Winkley and Figueroa's report, "The teen said that she was in and out of consciousness and her ear, belly and nose piercings were ripped out as men assaulted her for about 90 minutes. She said she stumbled out of the room bloodied and bruised and immediately told her friends she'd been raped."

She reported the rape to San Diego police the next day, and authorities investigated the case for nine months before turning over their findings to prosecutors, though they did not recommend charges be filed.

Araiza, a sixth-round pick of the Bills in 2022, was released by the team in late August after the woman sued him, Leonard and Ewaliko, accusing them of rape in her civil filing.

Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen and ForgiveCo partnered to forgive $10 million of consumer debt, the parties announced Wednesday.

“Coming from a small town and now living out my dream playing football, I recognize that I owe a debt of gratitude to the fans for their support not only each Sunday but also their continued support of my off-field endeavors,” Allen said in a statement. “I was honored when ForgiveCo approached me with a chance to uplift thousands of hard-working Americans in the communities that support me by alleviating the burden of debt from their lives.”

The debt forgiveness will reach farmers in California’s Central Valley, where Allen grew up, along with people in need in Wyoming, where he attended college, Buffalo and 200 zipcodes where Buffalo fans are "are shown to be concentrated in fan chapters" throughout the U.S.

ForgiveCo, a public benefit corporation, partners with brands to forgive debt as a way of easing the financial burden of individuals.

An average of $3,847 will be relieved from about 2,600 people identified.

After being placed on injured reserve last week with a knee injury, Buffalo Bills superstar pass-rusher Von Miller on Wednesday was ruled out for the remainder of the 2022 season.

According to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport, Bills head coach Sean McDermott said Miller underwent exploratory surgery Tuesday that resulted in the repairing of his ACL.

Miller had said he didn't tear his ACL but suffered a lateral meniscus injury, and he was hopeful he would return.

Per Rapoport, imaging tests "did not adequately show" that Miller had torn his ACL. The plan was to reposition Miller's lateral meniscus surgically and clean up cartilage damage, but it was discovered during the procedure that Miller had torn his ACL.

Miller suffered the injury during the Bills' Thanksgiving Day win over the Detroit Lions, and he was placed on IR, which ensured he would miss the next four games.

While he would have been eligible to return for Buffalo's Week 17 game against the Cincinnati Bengals, the Bills will now be without arguably their top defensive player for the remainder of the campaign.

After lacking an elite pass-rusher in recent years, the Bills signed Miller to a six-year, $120 million contract during the offseason in hopes that he was the missing piece to their Super Bowl puzzle.

The 33-year-old veteran is a surefire future Hall of Famer with 123.5 career sacks as well as eight Pro Bowl nods, three first-team All-Pro selections, two Super Bowl championships and the Super Bowl 50 MVP award.

Last season, the Los Angeles Rams acquired Miller in a trade with the Denver Broncos, and he recorded five sacks in eight regular-season games as well as four sacks in four playoff games during their run to the Super Bowl LVI title.

Miller was great in his first season with the Bills, registering a team-high eight sacks in 11 games. He had two sacks in a Week 6 win over the Kansas City Chiefs.

In his absence, the Bills will have to lean on their less-accomplished pass-rushers, including defensive ends Greg Rousseau, A.J. Epenesa, Boogie Basham and Shaq Lawson plus defensive tackles Ed Oliver, Jordan Phillips and DaQuan Jones.

Buffalo still boasts a talented defense anchored by cornerback Tre'Davious White, safety Jordan Poyer and linebackers Matt Milano and Tremaine Edmunds as well as one of the top offenses in the league, led by quarterback Josh Allen.

The Bills are the top seed in the AFC at 9-3, but the road to the Super Bowl will be more difficult without Miller.

With the New England Patriots mired in one of their worst seasons under Bill Belichick, it might be time to wonder whether the legendary head coach is approaching the twilight of his tenure.

NBC Sports' Peter King wrote in his weekly column he has "started to wonder" about Belichick's future in New England.

King highlighted the growing gulf between the Patriots and the Buffalo Bills—the Bills earned a 24-10 victory last Thursday—in the AFC East and referenced a stagnancy that appears to be settling in for the NFL's once preeminent franchise:

"I think Robert Kraft, who is 81 and will enter his 30th year of Patriots ownership in 2023, is not in this to rebuild deliberately. He has to be looking at the dung-show on the Patriots’ offensive staff and wondering why Belichick left the offense so wanting this year. Anyway, I can’t see anything weird happening this year. But I have my antennae up about the Patriots for 2023."

King isn't the first to speculate ownership might begin to scrutinize Belichick more closely. In September, The MMQB's Albert Breer said a reckoning could come in 2024.

Breer explained the Patriots would be four years removed from Tom Brady's departure, thus providing a fair amount of time to assess their direction under Belichick.

Because New England is projected to have the fourth-largest salary cap space ($49.4 million) in 2023, Breer said the team can have an immediate turnaround next season as well with the right additions.

To some extent, you'd expect Belichick to be untouchable. He has guided the Patriots to six Super Bowl wins and is one of the greatest coaches in NFL history.

But if Kraft was willing to let Tom Brady walk when it looked like the future Hall of Famer was starting to decline, then it stands to reason he'd use the same pragmatic approach with the coaching staff.

The San Francisco 49ers have a pretty scary defense. Just ask Tua Tagovailoa.

The Miami Dolphins quarterback threw two interceptions, lost a fumble that was returned for a touchdown, was sacked three times and left Sunday's 33-17 loss to the Niners with an ankle injury.

Talk about a tough night at the office.

Tagovailoa has been excellent at protecting the ball this season and had gone 193 pass attempts without an interception, per the FOX broadcast (h/t The Sporting News), before throwing picks on back-to-back throws against San Francisco.

NFL Twitter was surprised to see Tagovailoa struggle so much to protect the ball against the 49ers:

It wasn't all bad for the young quarterback; he also threw for 295 yards and two scores, including a 75-yard strike to Trent Sherfield on the game's first play from scrimmage. And after his 45-yard touchdown pass to Tyreek Hill early in the fourth quarter, the Dolphins only found themselves down 23-17 despite Tagovailoa's struggles.

But Robbie Gould's field goal with just 2:03 remaining, and Tagovailoa's fumble on the ensuing drive that was taken to the house by Dre Greenlaw, wrapped things up for the Niners.

While Tagovailoa faltered, Niners backup quarterback Brock Purdy—who was thrust into action after Jimmy Garoppolo suffered a foot injury in the first quarter and was unable to return—had an excellent game considering the circumstances, finishing 25-of-37 for 210 yards, two touchdowns and an interception.

It might be unfair to say that Purdy outplayed Tagovailoa, but he certainly managed the game well, helping his team win the turnover battle 4-1. That ultimately was the difference between the teams, as Miami's turnovers led to 13 points.