AFC Notes: Broncos, Chargers, Chiefs

Broncos

• The Denver Broncos announced they have hired Chris Cook as an offensive quality control coach. Cook was most recently the TE and offensive tackles coach at Akron University. He also served the same function, along with being a recruiting coordinator at Tennessee-Chattanooga. (Pro Football Talk)
• Mike Klis reports that Mike Shula will remain as the Broncos QB coach and that Justin Rascati will return as an offensive assistant.
• Klis also says that the Broncos will be hiring a new coach to replace Rob Calabrese, who was hired by the Jets as QB coach.

Chargers

Following the hiring of OC Joe Lombardi, Chargers’ QB Justin Herbert will be learning a new offense for the fourth time since he was drafted by the team last year.

“I’ve been through this before. It would be great to have one playbook throughout your career but it’s not going to always happen like that,” Herbert said, via Joe Reedy of the Associated Press. “I think it’s a great opportunity to learn. You always learn from each playbook. I think you have a great understanding of the game of football the more you go through it. I’ve had the opportunity to learn from so many different guys and philosophies and I think that’s helped my game. Hopefully, this is the last change that I’ll go through because I really believe in those two guys.”

Herbert also says he appreciated that HC Brandon Staley took time out of his schedule and reached out to him after being hired this offseason.

“To be as busy as he was with everything going on, he reached out to me, and that meant a lot to me,” said Herbert. “We kind of just talked about what he saw going forward. I know that talking about the offense and about all that stuff is coming up soon.”

Chiefs

Chiefs GM Brett Veach deserves a lot of the credit for building this Kansas City roster that’s knocking on the door of its second straight Super Bowl win and threatening to become the NFL’s next dynasty. But he says his job is made much easier by how flexible the coaching staff, led by Andy Reid, has been to accentuate the talent found by the scouting department. 

“What Andy does, when you find a skill set, you don’t have to worry about if he’s a true-this, or a true-that. He will find ways to get creative to put them in great positions,” Veach said via the Ringer’s Kevin Clark. “So guys come in from certain ‘systems.’ You’ll hear, ‘Oh, well, Patrick Mahomes is an Air Raid offense guy. Won’t work in the NFL.’ No, we’ll make it the NFL version of an Air Raid offense. We’ll move Sammy Watkins around, so he’s not just an outside player and can be more of a slot receiver. Mecole Hardman — we’ll find ways for him to get involved in the game with reverses and all these types of things. With Clyde Edwards-Helaire, we’ll do a lot more in the passing game with him. [Reid’s] going to find ways to highlight their skill set. From a GM standpoint, you don’t have to get pigeonholed into wondering if this guy is a good fit for what we do. If we like the guy, and we like the skill set, Coach will figure out a way to highlight it.”

• OUT for Super Bowl 55: OT Eric Fisher (Achilles), LB Willie Gay (knee, ankle).
• QUESTIONABLE for Super Bowl 55: WR Sammy Watkins (calf).