AFC Notes: Broncos, Chargers, Chiefs, Raiders

Broncos

Despite already having RBs Melvin Gordon and Mike Boone in the room, Broncos GM George Paton made it a priority to trade up and draft North Carolina RB Javonte Williams in the second round. Between the three of them, Paton thinks Denver has an argument as the best backfield in the league. 

“He’s a three-down back. He’s really powerful. He has speed to take it the distance,” Paton said via Mike Klis of KUSA. “The thing about him, he’s really hard to tackle. If you watch him, you see they have a hard time tackling him because he’s so physical, he’s built low to the ground. He breaks tons of tackles. He’s elusive in the open field. And he can pass protect. And catch the ball out of the backfield. So we feel he’s a three-down back who’s going to add to the room. I’ll keep talking about competition but we wanted more competition in the running back room and with Melvin and Mike Boone and Javonte, I think we have as good a crew as any in the league.”

Chargers

Chargers HC Brandon Staley called first-round OT Rashawn Slater a natural left tackle and is an “outstanding fit” for their offense. 

“We just felt like this guy is going to fit in with this group so well,” Staley said, via The Rich Eisen Show. “He plays left tackle. It wasn’t like, hey, you’ve got to move him to left tackle. He plays left tackle. And then just how we’re trying to play, and who we’re trying to play with, Rashawn is an outstanding fit.”

Staley said they expected Slater to be a top ten selection, but was fortunate enough to have him fall to No. 13. 

“We anticipated Rashawn going in the top 10. We felt like he was that caliber of player,” Staley said. “And then we also knew that with the quarterbacks and kind of the skill players on offense, that possibly some of these corners, it could fit right. And I think that once he got past Carolina, we felt like hey, there’s a chance. And felt like there was an outside chance Dallas could take him. And then when they went another direction, when they went with Micah [Parsons], we knew that we had him.”

Chiefs

Chiefs’ director of football operations Mike Borgonzi said they are “completely comfortable” with sixth-round G Trey Smith‘s medical evaluation after he dealt with blood clots in his lungs in college. 

“Obviously he’s a very good football player,” Borgonzi said, via the team’s official site. “You know, he’s one of the top guards in the country for the last couple years. Our medical staff with Rick Burkholder fully vetted the situation so we feel completely comfortable where he’s at medically to play for us. We’re just really excited to add him to the roster here.”

Chiefs GM Brett Veach reiterated that he’s confident that their front office and medical staff, including team physician Dr. Mike Monaco, did well to assess Smith’s current condition.

“I knew early on that when Mike thought he had an idea of how to fix this, I thought that we were really onto something because again, any area of gray we’re usually taking a player off the board because we don’t want to put players in that position here in Kansas City, so I feel good about the work we did on him,” Veach said. “Again, if everything works out, you’re getting a guy that obviously would have been drafted a lot higher, got tremendous upside with him and looking forward to getting him here and Mike and our trainers work with him and getting him up to speed and seeing if we can tap into all that potential.” 

Raiders

• ESPN’s Michael Rothstein identifies the Patriots, 49ers, Colts and Raiders as teams that have the cap space to absorb Falcons WR Julio Jones‘ contract in a trade and are contending teams with a need at receiver who wouldn’t mind taking a small gamble on a talent like Jones even if he is 32.
• The Athletic conducted an exercise with its beat reporters playing the role of GMs for the Broncos, Raiders, Washington and Packers and conducting mock trade discussions for QB Aaron Rodgers. In the exercise, the Packers turned down all three trade offers for Rodgers. 
• The Raiders offered QB Derek Carr, LB Nick Kwiatkoski and 2022 and 2023 first-round picks.