AFC Notes: Broncos, Chiefs, Raiders

Broncos

• According to Denver 7’s Troy Renck, the Broncos felt comfortable releasing LB Todd Davis because LB Josey Jewell was pushing to start even before Denver made that decision.
• At cornerback, Davontae Harris, Duke Dawson, and UDFA CB Essang Bassey created some separation in the competition to allow the Broncos to feel comfortable cutting De’Vante Bausby and trading Isaac Yiadom. 
• Broncos HC Vic Fangio said Bassey was better than teammate Bryce Callahan who entered the league as an UDFA with the Bears under Fangio: “You can see if a guy has instincts. He showed that. We let (Bassey) work with the first team the other day, and it wasn’t too big for him.”
• Meanwhile, Broncos TE Jake Butt made the final roster and appears to be healthy despite three past ACL tears, according to Fangio: “I have not seen him limp once. He hasn’t been in the training room. He’s had a terrific camp, not just playing-wise, but he’s actually 100 percent healthy. He’s moving around good, you’d never know he had the injuries with his knees. He looks as good as new to me.”
• Broncos’ strength and conditioning intern Emily Zaler was extended for the entire season and becomes Denver’s first full-time female coach. (Lindsay Jones)

Chiefs

• Jeremy Fowler reports that the Chiefs showed “some level of interest” in RB Adrian Peterson this week, due to his prior experience with OC Eric Bieniemy, who was his long-time running backs coach in Minnesota.
• However, they felt that the Thursday night game was too tough a turnaround to seriously consider adding him at this point. 
• Per ESPN’s Adam Teicher, Chiefs GM Brett Veach said former second-round DL Breeland Speaks just didn’t have a good enough camp to beat out Taco Charlton or fifth-round rookie Mike Danna: “He was just up against a deep and talented defensive line class.”
• Veach said the progress of CBs Rashad Fenton, Antonio Hamilton and fourth-round rookie L’Jarius Sneed convinced them not to aggressively go after a veteran corner. (Teicher)

Raiders

• Raiders’ GM Mike Mayock said of the surprising decision to trade third-round pick Lynn Bowden: “The Lynn Bowden move was a football-only decision. It had nothing to do with anything else.” (Vincent Bonsignore)
• Mayock also mentioned that the position change was too much for Bowden and that it was his call alone to make the trade: “It’s 100 percent on me.” (Vic Tafur)
• As for the release of S Damarious Randall, Mayock said that it was based on “what Erik Harris did.” (Tashan Reed)
• Mayock was willing to include the fact that Harris simply beat Randall out for the job: “I think we sometimes overlook how valuable a player Erik Harris is and we thought Damarious Randall would come in and compete with Erik for that spot, ultimately across from John Abram and at the end of the day, Damarious was not able to compete every day, wasn’t out here every day, through no fault of his own. But the more you look at Erik Harris, the more you look at, he’s a glue guy. Not only for the entire team, but specifically in the back end he gets people lined up, he’s the best communicator we have back there, and he’s one of our top special teams players. So when you look at Erik Harris, I think a lot of times he gets underrated. He doesn’t get the respect he deserves. And I think every year he’s had a challenge with people coming in, trying to take his job, and he’s just consistent, smart, tough and he will be a very difficult guy to supplant.” (Paul Gutierrez)
• According to Athletic’s Vic Tafur, the Raiders decided to trade third-round RB Lynn Bowden Jr. to the Dolphins because Bowden had a bad camp and showed a number of other red flags that concerned the team. 
• Tafur says there were members of the team who thought Bowden was more interested in picking up new cars than picking up the playbook. 
• He adds Bowden looked measured and not explosive once he was able to get on the field and was blasted regularly in pass protection drills.
• The Raiders were worried that those issues weren’t going to get any better in a city like Las Vegas and that Bowden would drag down other rookies like WR Henry Ruggs III and CB Damon Arnette.
• Las Vegas traded Bowden and a sixth for the fourth-round pick they had already given Miami to acquire LB Raekwon McMillan and a fifth. So the final result is:

Raiders get: McMillan, MIA 2021 5th
Dolphins get: Bowden, LV 2021 6th