Broncos
Broncos HC Sean Payton is old school and reminded people about it when all of Denver’s rookies were listed behind veteran players on the team’s first depth chart — regardless of anything else. But he also has high hopes and expectations for Denver’s 2024 group, comparing it to some of his best classes when he was with the Saints. Payton specifically shouted out third-round OLB Jonah Elliss, fourth-round WR Troy Franklin and seventh-round WR Devaughn Vele, and other rookies to catch eyes so far in camp have included first-round QB Bo Nix and fifth-round RB Audric Estime.
“I’m encouraged with this rookie class,” he said via Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer. “I’m telling you people are underestimating this Vele we got later in the draft, Troy Franklin in the fourth round, Kaden Elliss’s brother. I told [CEO] Greg [Penner] about the 2006 class and the ’17 draft class in New Orleans. This ’24 draft class, you watch, it has a chance to be something you look back on and say these guys are all playing well.”
Chiefs
Chiefs DC Steve Spagnuolo spoke about CB L’Jarius Sneed leaving the team this offseason and said that CB Trent McDuffie may step up and fill the void left by him.
“We’ll see how that goes. I mean, almost every game, we had LJ (L’Jarius Sneed) travel with the “top receiver,” whether we do that or not with Trent (McDuffie), it’ll just be a game-by-game plan. We’ll see who the other corner is and who the nickel is,” Spagnuolo said, via Chiefs Wire. “There’s still a lot of unknowns right now. We got some work to do back there. We certainly miss LJ; I miss him every day.”
Spagnuolo said he will continue to adjust his scheme based on the personnel that the team has while admitting that they’ve always had a corner that has traveled with the opposing team’s top receiver.
“Some of the schemes might change. We’ll see somebody going to step up and serve that particular role. If we don’t, we go in another direction and find another way to do it,” Spagnuolo added. “In the years we’ve been here, we always, every game, travel a corner. We did it a little bit when Charvarius Ward was here; we did with him, but it’ll be a game-by-game thing.”
Raiders
Raiders HC Antonio Pierce gave an update on the quarterback competition between Aidan O’Connell and Gardner Minshew. O’Connell completed 7-9 pass attempts for 76 yards on a field goal drive that stalled. Minshew led the next four drives and finished 6-12 for 117 yards and a touchdown. Las Vegas scored on three of those drives and the offense generated 17 points under Minshew.
“Yeah, it was good. Good reps there for Aidan. Backed up, got us drove all the way down the length of the field. It was close there, was thinking about going for the fourth down, negative play, we kicked a field goal,” Pierce said via NFL Media’s Kevin Patra. “And then Gardner came in, three good drives. Really for both quarterbacks, all four possessions led to points on the board for the Raiders. That was positive. There’s a lot of things obviously we can learn from it.”
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