AFC Notes: Chiefs, Patriots, Texans

Chiefs

An NFC executive tells Terez A. Paylor of the Kansas City Star that the timing of the Chiefs’ decision to fire GM John Dorsey is “kind of weird.”

“I think it’s kind of weird,” the executive said. “Draft’s over, the talent’s in place and all of a sudden, you’re out a GM and one of your top talent evaluators? The timing is strange.”

Multiple sources who spoke to Paylor believe there will be plenty of interest in the Chiefs’ position now that it’s available.

“I think it’s an attractive position,” an NFC coach said, “and a tough act to follow.”

“It is viewed as a great job,” an NFC executive tells Paylor. “Very attractive.”

“People will jump at the job,” an AFC executive said. “KC is set up for years to come.”

While it’s clear that there some appealing aspects about the job, there’s still a chance that some external candidates may have some concerns.

“Guys under contract with other clubs might look and see that the pay is probably less than others, and there’s limited flexibility with the staff because it’s so close to the season, and they might not have control of the 53-man,” one longtime NFL evaluator told Paylor. “Someone might want to wait until they can have those things.

“But in my opinion, I still think it’s a great job.”

Patriots

• Ben Volin believes veteran WR Andrew Hawkins will likely only make the 53-man roster if either Julian Edelman or Danny Amendola suffers an injury.
• The Patriots signed Hawks to just a one-year, $775,000 contract this offseason and New England wouldn’t incur any dead money by releasing him.

Texans

Texans second-year WR Braxton Miller said he is hoping to make a leap in his second year in the NFL and is working on determining coverages to aid his progression as a receiver.

“It helped a lot,” Miller said, via Deepi Sidhu of HoustonTexans.com. “You know, your route is determined on the coverage they play so if you don’t know the coverage, it’s a slim-to-none chance that you get the ball. So before the play gets started, get lined up, you got to know the coverage, know the alignments, the indicators that give you the type of rotation that they are going to give you, so it plays a big part.”

Texans WRs coach John Perry also said they’ve seen a lot of improvement from Miller in terms of his ability to recognize of coverages.

“I was talking to Braxton the other day and the thing that really helped C.J. Fiedorowicz last year was recognition of coverages,” Perry said. “That’s what I’ve been really trying to spend a lot of time with Braxton on. I think that’s going to be – it’s much different when you’re under center recognizing coverages as opposed to being out wide and recognizing coverages. When he knows who he has to beat, he’s very good, but he has to keep working on that coverage aspect of it. You’ll see a lot more improvement there.”