AFC Notes: Davante Adams, Mark Davis, Patrick Mahomes, Chiefs, Raiders

Chiefs

Top receivers on the market like Davante Adams and Amari Cooper landed with new teams this week. When asked about the Chiefs’ receiver spot, QB Patrick Mahomes said he has the utmost confidence in their current group and the entire offense. 

“I have extreme confidence with the guys that are on that football field,” Mahomes said, via Adam Teicher of ESPN. “They’ve won games, they’ve won Super Bowls, they’ve made plays in big moments and Brett Veach has done a great job of bringing players in that can step up whenever their number is called. Every time I step on that football field, I feel like we have the best ability to win, and I think that’s a credit to Brett Veach and coach [Andy] Reid bringing in guys that really get after it and put in the work to be great every single day.”

As for Kansas City’s Week 7 game against the 49ers, Mahomes said he has a lot of respect for San Francisco after facing them in two Super Bowls. 

“Whenever you have two great football teams that meet up in the Super Bowl and meet up in all these big games, there’s going to be a history between that and so obviously we’ve been able to win those games,” Mahomes said. “But we know how good this football team is and we have a ton of respect for them and so it’s not like one play couldn’t have changed all these football games and so we’re going with that mindset of we’ve just got to make the plays whenever they count.”

• Chiefs HC Andy Reid announced WR JuJu Smith-Schuster will play Sunday against San Francisco despite hamstring spasms and will be listed as questionable in case of a setback. (Adam Teicher)

Raiders

Raiders owner Mark Davis commented on the team trading WR Davante Adams to the Jets and referred to the business part of the sport.

“Because I’m used to it,” Davis said, via NFL.com. “I’ve grown up in this sport. There is the business side of the building and the football side of the building. The football side is tough love, man. I’ve seen my best friend … Cliff Branch, he had to retire. I’ve seen all of these guys, at some point in time they said I’ve got to hang it up or this or that. You get really tough, thick skin.”

“My basic thing is never to answer all that stuff because, otherwise, you get trapped in this black hole,” Davis added when asked if he spoke with the locker room about the trade. “Listen, I’ll consult with them, I’ll devil’s advocate. But they make the decisions. They’re authorized to make the decisions. You’d have to be inside the locker room and you’d understand what the message is. You’d have to ask them. But I’m confident that there are no issues. Yeah, I know the players are OK with it.”

Raiders

Raiders HC Antonio Pierce said they are quickly moving on from trading away Davante Adams and are keeping a “next man up” mentality. 

“Next man up, move on,” Pierce said, via Paul Gutierrez of ESPN. “He was out for the last [three] weeks, so we’re fine. … That’s how we’ve been really operating the last couple weeks. You never replace an All-Pro receiver like Davante. But at the end of the day, we’re not trying to. We’re trying to be the best versions of ourselves.”

Raiders WR Jakobi Meyers is glad they are past the situation with Adams.

“It’s like a period on a weird situation,” Meyers said. “But yeah, at least now we know what we’re working with. Hopefully, everybody’s happy and we can just make plays with what we’ve got.”

Raiders TE Brock Bowers admits they are now missing a big piece of their offense with Adams gone but is confident other players will emerge. 

“Just missing that piece,” Bowers said. “But we’ve got other dudes here that are going to pull through, hopefully. And we’ve got to get healed up a little bit with Jakobi and stuff, and we’re on the right track.”

• Raiders CB Jack Jones was fined $5,472 for Unsportsmanlike Conduct (taunting) in Week 6.