AFC Notes: Bengals, Chiefs, Patriots

Bengals

• Ben Volin of the Boston Globe writes that the Chiefs protected themselves last year when they drafted Tyreek Hill by limiting his $218,720 signing bonus to $70,000 with the rest being paid out in per-game roster bonuses.
• However, the Bengals did not use this as a template for second-round RB Joe Mixon and instead gave him the full $2,103,752 signing bonus up front.

Chiefs

Terez A. Paylor of the Kansas City Star writes that the Chiefs need WR Tyreek Hill to be more like Steve Smith than Devin Hester in 2017 now that they’ve moved on from Jeremy Maclin.

Hill is a smaller receiver, but he believes he can have a similar impact as Smith did for the Panthers and Ravens.

“It’s all about what’s in your heart, man,” Hill said. “Steve Smith, he’s the same height as me and he’s a dog on the field.”

Chiefs special teams coordinator Dave Toub admits that it isn’t the easy for dynamic kick returners to have a big impact on offensive.

“It’s very tough (to do),” Toub said. “I mean, with some guys, their limit might be a great returner, you know?”

Even so, Toub added that Hill is “just scratching the surface as a wide receiver.”

“He’s really just scratching the surface as a wide receiver — (he) just keeps better and better,” Toub said. “The offense just keeps throwing more and more stuff at him, and he just keeps improving. It’s really amazing.”

Patriots

Mike Reiss of ESPN mentions that after speaking with Julian Edelman‘s father, Frank, it was clear that Edelman pushed hard to get his recent contract extension done with the Patriots.

“Boston loves their athletes, and if you’re in, you’re in. Boston is also all about what Julian is; you just go to work and grind it out,” Frank Edelman said. “He loves Boston and everything about the Patriots. There are also a lot of off-field opportunities if you stay in Boston. We’d love to be a Patriot for life.”

Frank Edelman added that there was actually a point in contract talks where it appeared as though a deal may not get done.

“For a time, you’re thinking maybe it won’t happen,” he said. “So it’s always nice when it does, even when you get a feeling that it might have been hard for them to do it.”