AFC Notes: Broncos, Chargers, Chiefs

Broncos

Broncos GM George Paton was asked by reporters about which areas he believed showed the most improvement during the 2023 season.

“Special teams. We were in the bottom of the league in special teams my first two years here. [It] depends on what rankings you look at. If you look at [Mike] Westhoff’s, we’re first,” Paton joked, via BroncosWire.com. “But we’re probably in the top five. That was a big emphasis. We’ve been trying to get there, and I give credit to Mike Westhoff, Ben Kotwica and Chris Banjo for what they did. We [also brought] in some players. You have [Marvin] Mims, you have Riley Moss, and you have Tremon Smith. Special Teams was a big jump.”

“On defense, like Sean [has] talked about, the defense formed an identity after about six or seven games with physicality and creating turnovers,” Paton added. “That was huge for our team. The offense — we were running the ball pretty good. Obviously late in the year, we didn’t, but on offense, the identity was physicality and ball control. We didn’t turn it over much. We need to get better in both of those phases, but that’s where the jump was from prior years.”

• Memphis RB Blake Watson met with the Broncos at the Hula Bowl. (Ryan Fowler)

Chargers

• Memphis RB Blake Watson met with the Chargers at the Hula Bowl. (Ryan Fowler)

Chiefs

Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes knows that he’s going to be heading to a hostile environment in Buffalo and is looking forward to the challenge of playing in front of their crowd in the first road playoff game of his seven-year career.

“I’ve been lucky enough to play a lot of games at home at Arrowhead Stadium,” Mahomes said, via PFT. “But now we have a great opportunity to go on the road, play in a hostile environment, one where I haven’t been able to play with fans in the stands. Even though I know it’s going to be hostile and there are going to be people talking trash, I’m excited for it because it’s one of the best environments in football, and you want to do that when you grow up watching these games, play in the best environment and see what it’s like.”

Mahomes plans on approaching the game the same way he does every other matchup.

“I go into every game with the same mindset, and that’s to go out there and win. We understand it’s going to be a great challenge, we understand it’s going to be a hostile environment, and we’re playing a great football team,” Mahomes said. “We know it’s going to be a great challenge for us but our mindset is we’re going to prepare ourselves this week to go out there to win the football game, and that never changes.”

• Texas Tech CB Rayshad Williams met with the Chiefs at the Hula Bowl. (Ryan Fowler)