Dolphins HC Jeff Hafley said that the team’s penalties continued to put them in a bad position in their loss to the Lions.

“The penalties put us in a lot of hard positions where we were in a lot of get-back-on-track situations where it’s hard to stay balanced,” Hafley said, via ESPN. “When you’re able to stay ahead of the sticks at second-and-6 rather than second-and-15 or first-and-15 or second-and-20, I mean, it’s hard to call anything. And that’s where we have to be better. We have to stay on track. It’s not OK to have it second-and-20 or first-and-20. We can’t play the game like that. So a lot of it, again, give them credit, but a lot of it was self-inflicted yesterday that we have to be better at.”

“You’d hope to say it was a one-off, but we can’t make excuses. We can’t have that many penalties. I mean, we’re not going to be efficient to play the game that way and we’re not going to win if we continue to have penalties like that,” Hafley continued. “Since the bye week, it had been better, but it wasn’t good enough yesterday. So again, let’s look at what we did lately and let’s correct it.”

Per Brian Costello, Jets DE Will McDonald‘s trade request came after he had numerous conversations regarding an increased role on defense, but nothing materialized. 
McDonald was particularly frustrated that other teams engaged in trade talks with offers around a second-round pick for his services, but the Jets have refused, per Costello.

Jets HC Aaron Glenn doesn’t appear ready to move on from veteran QB Geno Smith any time soon.

“[He’s] really just finding his rhythm on who he is and what he does best,” Glenn said of Smith, via ESPN.

“Geno is a better passer and better processor [than Fields], but sometimes you question his decision-making because he’s so confident with his arm and his ability but less of an athlete,” an AFC scout said, comparing Smith to former Jets starter Justin Fields. “Geno is a better quarterback; Justin is a better athlete.”

“It’s a tough environment, and it’s a very hard position to play and only so many can really do it,” backup QB Cade Klubnik said of supporting Smith. “There’s not very many that can do it at the level he’s doing it right now. The result of every game isn’t just based off how the quarterback plays; it’s a team effort. I just try to support him and always just be the best teammate and leader that I can for him.”

“It was a way to get another quality player onto our unit that actually can cover the kicks. I thought it worked out really well for us,” Glenn also noted on adding FB Andrew Beck to kickoffs, via The Athletic. “Those are things I’m always going to look at — things that are out of the box thinking with good players on the field. We’re missing a number of players because of injury. Anytime we can think outside of the box to try to improve our units, that’s what we’re going to do.”