AFC Notes: Chargers, Chiefs, Raiders

Chargers

• Chargers WR DeAndre Carter‘s one-year, $1.135 million deal includes a $100,000 signing bonus, a base salary of $1.035 million, and a $1.25 million incentive for catches, yards, touchdowns, return averages, and Pro Bowl selection. (Aaron Wilson)

Chiefs

Former Chiefs S Tyrann Mathieu said that he likely would’ve accepted the three-year, $31.5 million deal that Justin Reid received from Kansas City if the organization offered the contract. 

“To be honest, if they would’ve offered me Justin Reid’s deal, obviously I would’ve tried to negotiate, but if that’s where they drew their line in the sand, I probably would’ve took it. I probably would’ve took it,” said Mathieu, via Sam McDowell of the Kansas City Star. 

Mathieu called last season the “hardest year of my career” after recovering from injuries and acknowledging that the Chiefs likely didn’t want to re-sign him. 

“It was the hardest year of my career,” Mathieu said. “I’ve been through ACLs (surgeries). I’ve been through a lot of stuff in this league — having to move my family every two or three years. But that was one of the hardest, longest years of my life. I just knew. Everything I was working for, man. Every day I wake up trying to make the Chiefs better, trying to make the community better. I’m just working toward that knowing that there’s an end date. There’s an expiration date to that.”

Mathieu thinks that his lack of size and speed contributes to teams overlooking him. 

“If you look too hard, you won’t really see my greatness,” Mathieu said. “‘Cause, yo, this dude is not that big and this dude is not that fast. “I just knew, last year, people’s appreciation for me was kinda going away. I took all that hard. I tried to stay in my routine. I wasn’t going to be a bad teammate. That ain’t me. In the back of my mind, though, I knew.”

Mathieu added that he is a coachable player and is always attentive to his coaches. 

“I hear everything a coach says. I think that’s why I’m so coachable,” Mathieu said. “Something in me just has to sit in the front row and be like, all right, I know this dude is talking to me. He told the defensive end to do that? I still know he’s talking to me.”

Raiders

• Coastal Carolina TE Isaiah Likely had a formal Combine interview with the Raiders. (Ryan Roberts)