AFC Notes: Chiefs, Jets, Steelers

Chiefs

Chiefs GM Brett Veach previously mentioned that they never thought DL Breeland Speaks was going to be available to them by the time they were on the clock at No. 54 overall, which explains why they made the trade up to get him.

“Breeland is an interesting guy,” Veach said, via Chiefs.com. “When you start the pre‐Combine evaluation process you go into it and you know you don’t have a first‐round pick, so you start to kind of, in your mind, know that the (Bradley) Chubb’s are going to go and the Derwin James’ are going to go and these guys and so on and so forth. So you start to look at, alright, we’re sitting there at 54 and there’s no movement, we’re a pocket of players that would make sense for us and when we started the process out we had Breeland in that third‐round value this guy would be exactly what we’re looking for. As you know, this draft wasn’t deep in pass rushers. So where can you find guys like that.

“Breeland’s one of those guys that at three he’ll never be there by the time we pick again at three so we might have to pull the trigger early at 54. Then as the process goes on you realize he’s probably not going to be there at 54. That’s just the way this thing works. The old kind of deal I use is that if you’re here in three it goes in two, if you’re here in four he goes in three. So when you’re starting to hear that everybody has Speaks in three you know he’s going in two and then you realize when you start looking at the board, and I think that was a question yesterday trying to evaluate Detroit and Dallas and the Colts, they’re all picking right in front of you and we just didn’t want to risk that because this guy can get to the quarterback.”

Jets

Darryl Slater of NJ.com takes a look at some notable players for the Jets who could be on the roster bubble this summer.

• Slater’s list includes CB Rashard Robinson, CB Justin Burris, FB Lawrence Thomas, OL Jonotthan Harrison, RB Thomas Rawls, TE Clive Walford, WR Charone Peake, WR Devin Smith, and OLB Lorenzo Mauldin.
• Of this group, Slater says that Burris may have the best shot at making the team while Smith and Mauldin are “both goners.”
• As for Teddy Bridgewater, Slater expects the Jets to give him every opportunity to compete for their starting job and possibly consider trading him this summer.

Steelers

Steelers WR Antonio Brown, who turned 30 on Tuesday, says he isn’t concerned about his age and feels as though he’s in great shape at this point in his NFL career.

“I don’t pay attention to my age,” Brown said, via Jeremy Fowler of ESPN. “I’m feeling great, I’m healthy and I’m in great shape. I feel as long as I have that, I can continue to be productive. … Life is all about challenges and working to be the best. You never want to limp away from the game.”