AFC Notes: Broncos, Chargers, Raiders

Broncos

Broncos’ G Dalton Risner said that Peyton Manning is serving as a mentor to current QB Drew Lock. According to Risner, Manning is a big fan of the Lock. 

“Peyton Manning is a big fan of Drew Lock,” Risner told FanSided’s Matt Lombardo on the Matt Lombardo Show. “Him and Drew have been doing a lot of work this offseason and watching film. If he’s on board with Drew, I’ve been on board with Drew, too. It’s been fun.”

Risner is hoping that Lock will be the team’s starter next season, even though the franchise could select a new one with the ninth overall pick in the draft.

“I hope it’s Drew. I’ve got faith in Drew Lock,” Risner said. “One thing that we don’t think about is, we talk about these great quarterbacks, and it takes time for them to develop. They didn’t just become a great quarterback overnight. I sat down with Peyton Manning a few weeks ago. We talked about how rough his first couple of seasons were. We know this is a huge year, we need to have a better season than 5-11. I sure hope in six months you look back and say ‘Dude, Dalton was right.’”

Chargers

New Chargers’ HC Brandon Staley is still looking for the team’s franchise left tackle, given that they lost LT Sam Tevi in free agency. 

“Yeah, there certainly [is] a hole there right now,”  Staley told the media Thursday. “We feel like we have some tackle prospects on the roster that can certainly play there. But it’s gonna be certainly a position that we need to address you know, before July. As you know, there are a lot of different ways to address it within the draft, free agency, trade. So there’s a lot of different ways that you can do that. Definitely, that’s gonna be a piece that we need to fill before July and we’re excited to do it. But we really like the way we’ve started in free agency with the interior of our line.”

The team is unlikely to be in a position to select T Penei Sewell, who blocked for QB Justin Herbert at Oregon. Virginia Tech T Christian Darrisaw and Northwestern T Rashawn Slater could still be on the board, while in free agency T Eric Fisher and T Alejandro Villanueva are still available.

One darkhorse to watch for is Ravens’ T Orlando Brown Jr. who has requested a trade.

Raiders

Returning to the Raiders from the Browns, S Karl Joseph said that S Johnathan Abram has been reaching out to him for a while about coming back to the team that drafted him.

“This team is built to win,” Joseph said, via Vincent Bonsignore of the Review-Journal. “I never wanted to leave”

Joseph added that the Raiders having a winning culture, and he wants to return to being a part of it.