AFC Notes: Clyde Edwards-Helaire, Justin Herbert, Chargers, Chiefs, Raiders

Chargers

Chargers run game coordinator Andy Bischoff spoke on the shift the offense plans to take this year and how a run game can help the success of QB Justin Herbert. 

“Every great quarterback when surrounded by a quality run game has the opportunity to have plays that are a little bit of a breather play,” Bischoff said, via Daniel Popper of The Athletic. “Not everyone needs to function like Peyton Manning did to win football games. Can (Herbert) do that? I mean, the guy is brilliant. Intelligence-wise, this is a guy with rare intelligence. However, in our system of football, do we really need to put him under that much stress on every single down? And the answer is no. And so how do you do that? You have a balanced offense that brings out the greatest strengths in everyone on the unit. Certainly when you have a player of his caliber, you’re excited about the outcome.”

Bischoff will also be the team’s TE coach and he spoke about how excited he is to have new TE Will Dissly in the room. 

“You’re talking about one of the three guys in the league that can own the C-gap, period. There’s not many of them. This is a different kind of football league we live in now, and to have a tight end that can own the C-gap is rare. He’s one of those guys.”

“This offense and this building is an O line-centric space. When it comes to our strength program, it’s built around the O-line. Everybody else fall in line. Some people don’t value offensive linemen. We do. That will be shown in how we approach everything, from how we stretch to how we lift to how we run the ball to how we protect.”

Chiefs

Chiefs RB Clyde Edwards-Helaire reflected on the organization declining his fifth-year option last year before re-signing to an extension this offseason, describing he was just grateful for a continued opportunity in Kansas City. 

“Numbers are numbers, things change,” Edwards-Helaire said, via ChiefsWire. “Obviously, [they] changed from 2019 numbers to 2020s, all the way going into 2023, [and] 2024. I was fortunate enough I’m a first-round pick, like I said, to have a second spot [to] call home. You know, a lot of those times, man, just being around football and seeing it, why don’t you don’t want to say the fifth-year options are rare, but it’s not one of those things that you see, like, oh, I know, that’s an automatic thing that’s always going to happen. So, I knew I was getting an opportunity to continue to play. You know, that fourth year wasn’t like I was getting cut. It was a next year’s contract was what has been this year. I just knew, as long as I got a chance to put on a helmet and put on pads, I was gonna have that opportunity to showcase what I needed to do to be back on his team.”

• UCLA RB Carson Steele is visiting the Chiefs. (MLFootball)

Raiders

• Florida State DT Braden Fiske will have an official 30 visit with the Raiders. (Tristen Kuhn)
• Washington State S Jaden Hicks had a visit with the Raiders. (Tom Pelissero)
• UCLA RB Carson Steele took an official visit with the Raiders. (Joel Erickson)