AFC Notes: Brandon Staley, Chargers, Chiefs, Raiders, Derek Carr

Chargers

Veteran defensive players with the Chargers including LB Kyle Van Noy and DL Sebastian Joseph-Day have all voiced their support for HC Brandon Staley and are willing to strongly defend him as the team heads into the playoffs.

“I’m not blind to what the media is and what everybody wants and saw a lot of the people hating on him,” Van Noy said, via Lindsey Thiry of ESPN. “I’m the type of person like, where it’s all good when things go bad, you can point out the negatives, but you also need to give credit when credit is due, and I felt like he deserved credit and when you lead a team that’s injured as bad as we were at one point and we weren’t clicking on defense as everybody wanted.”

“We’re building a culture here,” Van Noy added. “It doesn’t just happen overnight.”

“So many people try to doubt Coach Staley and his plan and his way,” Joseph-Day added. “We lost [several] key players and we somehow were in a winning position, winning record, battling it out every game. Happy for [Staley], happy for this team. But we still got a lot to go.”

Chiefs

• Chiefs CB L’Jarius Sneed is considered day-to-day with a hip pointer injury going forward after leaving the Week 17 win against the Broncos. (Ian Rapoport)

Raiders

• Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer writes that, according to his understanding, the Raiders decided to move on from QB Derek Carr in part because he didn’t fit with the new regime under HC Josh McDaniels and GM Dave Ziegler. 
• Breer adds toughness and accountability were issues, with the Raiders feeling that Carr failed to hang in the pocket and deliver the ball to open receivers too often. There was also a feeling among players and coaches that Carr hadn’t shouldered his share of the blame for close losses, with the Thursday night loss to the Rams cited in particular. 
• Per Breer, Carr’s play in those situations also left something to be desired from the team’s perspective, and they felt they missed a lot of opportunities to maximize WR Davante Adams too. 
• Going forward, Breer expects Carr’s camp to be granted permission to seek a trade, with the Commanders, Jets and Panthers potential destinations. Carr could also make things complicated for Las Vegas and force them to release him. 
• He adds the Raiders will look hard into signing either Buccaneers QB Tom Brady or 49ers QB Jimmy Garoppolo, both of whom are slated to be free agents this offseason.