AFC Notes: Chargers, Chiefs, Raiders

Chargers

• According to the Athletic’s Ben Standig, the Chargers are interested in Commanders free agent WR DeAndre Carter, who is also weighing a return to Washington. 

Chiefs

Chiefs HC Andy Reid told reporters that the team found WR Tyreek Hill’s asking price to be too high, which led to him being traded to the Dolphins.

“You can handle it any way you want to handle it. We handled it the way we did there,” Reid said, via Pro Football Talk. “We felt like Tyreek deserved an opportunity. We came in aggressive and then after we got to a point, we just said, ‘Hey, listen, in this day and age, you have issues that you have to deal with with the cap,’ so we felt like it was better to allow him to go ahead and be traded. You can go different routes. You can play hardball with a player and do that, or you can kind of go about the way I did. Or we did…Listen, the cap never gets far away from your thought process, because you’re always dealing with it. So (General Manager) Brett (Veach) has got to sit in there and manage that with his guys and if you want to keep consistency throughout the years you’ve got to be able to do that and still stay at a high level. So I love Tyreek Hill. There was no rift between Tyreek Hill and myself. I thought he deserved an opportunity if that’s where he wanted to go. He’s a family man with a few kids, and he’s got to be able to support them now and down the road and this gives him an opportunity to do that. Put him a place where he has a home, and at the same time, it gave us great compensation.”

Reid points out that the team has faith in QB Patrick Mahomes, who will have to gel with new receivers JuJu Smith-Schuster and Marquez Valdes-Scantling.

“Obviously, Patrick’s a big part of that (belief the team can remain competitive),” Reid said. “You want to surround him with good players, but that’s a sticky question because we did try to sign Tyreek at a certain cost. Once it gets past that, now you can see what we’re doing here with the players we brought in, and we feel they’re very good football players. So we’ll see. I mean the end result is going to be what takes place during the season, but Brett’s building this thing back where we feel comfortable that we can go win on Sundays.”

• ESPN’s Dianna Russini says the Chiefs are actively working the trade market looking to add another top-tier receiver.

Raiders

Las Vegas has become home to quite a few coaches and personnel staff who have ties to the New England organization, including HC Josh McDaniels, GM Dave Ziegler and DC Patrick Graham. That was a big help as they were recruiting OLB Chandler Jones and ultimately helped them win out over a number of suitors. 

“I feel amazing. It’s a dream come true,” Jones said in an interview on SiriusXM NFL Radio. “I was just sitting here talking with Pat Graham, I spoke with Dave Ziggy and I talked to Josh McDaniels, and these guys have known me since I came into the league. I mean, these guys have known me since I was a puppy. They’ve known me almost like a decade ago. To have the opportunity for everything to come around full circle, for me to be on the same team with these guys, it credited to a lot of my decision. It gives me a lot of trust. I trust this front office like no other and, like I said, It gives you the motivation to go through a wall for people like that. They demand that respect for sure.”