AFC Notes: Broncos, Chiefs, DeAndre Hopkins, Raiders

Broncos

Veteran LB Kwon Alexander signed with Denver’s practice squad following LB Alex Singleton‘s torn ACL. Broncos HC Sean Payton mentioned Alexander is a candidate to be signed to the 53-man roster and his playing time will depend on the situation.

“We go back and forth based on what our package is,” Payton said, via Jon Heath of the Broncos Wire. “So a lot of it has to do with who we’re playing. A lot of it has to do with, ‘What’s our personnel? Are we in base? Are we in penny?’ and then, ‘Who are we playing?’ relative to those decisions.”

• Broncos QB Bo Nix following the team’s defeat in Week 9: “A lot of what-ifs in this game, but the fact of the matter is we got our butts kicked.” (Ryan McFadden)
• Broncos HC Sean Payton on the loss: “Let’s not make any excuses. We got whooped today.” (Troy Renck)

Chiefs

Chiefs TE Travis Kelce praised WR DeAndre Hopkins for providing a strong veteran presence on the team despite only briefly appearing for the team so far.

“It’s awesome, man,” Kelce said, via ChiefsWire.com. “Having D-Hop (DeAndre Hopkins) in the building, have another vet, a guy, he’s such a,  I call him ‘Swag Champ’ when you get a vet into the building, and he juices everybody’s confidence up,” said Kelce. “He juices everybody, like the aura and the fun that you have in the building and just going to work. He’s just another guy that you can always rely on to show up and put in the work, but enjoy what he’s doing and try and have some fun with it. Man, he’s been awesome stepping up and stepping into the building. He had two days, Thursday and Friday during practice, to get timing with Pat (Patrick Mahomes) and in the offense to try and kind of get into the routine, everything with coach (Andy) Reid’s way of doing things. He’s just professional, just a professional guy. He came in asking questions, trying to get caught up as fast as possible. And sure enough, we got him in the building, and I think the first third down we had, we went right to him, baby. Yeah, right to him. And he’s right on time, man.”

Raiders

Raiders HC Antonio Pierce said that despite the team’s offensive struggles, he’s not looking to make a change at who’s calling plays.

“I’m not going to get into questioning the play calling,” Pierce said, via The Athletic. “Nobody calls a play for it to fail. There’s got to be a level of execution and an attention to detail.”

Raiders OC Luke Getsy shifted the blame away from the play-calling and said that it takes all 11 players on the field in order to execute what is called offensively.

“It’s all of us, right?” Getsy said when asked about the offensive struggles last week. “It’s a team effort, and I really believe that. And I think the inconsistencies are dissipating. … I think every week it gets a little bit better and better. I think the mindset, the understanding of what the objective is, is getting clearer each and every week. … You keep making sure you’re driving the objective of making sure all 11 on the field are on the same page all the time, and that’s really the answer.”

Pierce expressed the need for patience with a new offense and new quarterback.

“There is a learning curve,” Pierce said. “I don’t think any team that’s in the National Football League with a new offensive coordinator and quarterback are just sitting here jelling right now.”