AFC Notes: Davante Adams, Patrick Mahomes, Chargers, Chiefs, Raiders

Chargers

Jeremy Fowler of ESPN ranks Chargers OT Rashawn Slater as the No.9 tackle on his list of tackles, down from the fifth spot last season.

“He’s just solid in every area — good speed, not huge but adequate size, very intelligent, doesn’t have many lapses,” an AFC executive said of Slater.

Chiefs

Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes is looking forward to training camp in St. Joseph, Missouri and they are focused on coming in with a “higher intensity” to defend their Super Bowl title. 

“We’re back at St. Joe,” Mahomes said, via Adam Teicher of ESPN. “It’s time to get better. Every season starts differently. You’ve got to come in with that same mentality you had the year before, even with a higher intensity and even though we won the Super Bowl last year, we felt like we didn’t play our best football, especially offensively. So it’s our goal to be better that way and coming in with that mentality every single day.”

Although Kansas City is the defending champions, Mahomes still has a weird taste about last season after Kansas City entered the playoffs at 11-6. 

“The end result [last season] was awesome, but I think a lot of us still have a weird feeling in our mouth. It wasn’t fun every single week having to try to just continue to get better and better and the results not paying off the way you wanted to. It wasn’t a lot of fun. We have a lot of those same guys back and they know how that felt and so we’re going to try to prepare ourselves better this year so that we can play better throughout the season and obviously try to end with the same result.”

Mahomes feels they’ve added a lot of speed to their offense with WRs Marquise Brown and Xavier Worthy, while it’s beneficial to practice against their strong defense. 

“We added a lot of speed,” Mahomes said. “What’s better than going against our defense? It’s the best defense in the NFL and we get to go against them every single day and really show where we’re at and how we can get better.”

Raiders

When surveying NFL executives, coaches, and scouts about the NFL’s top-10 receivers, Jeremy Fowler of ESPN ranks Raiders WR Davante Adams at No. 5 after having five different starting quarterbacks since joining Las Vegas.

Fowler cites an anonymous NFL personnel evaluator who still considers Adams one of the league’s best outside receivers, but is still warry over the Raiders’ quarterback spot.

“He’s still a blue-chipper,” the personnel evaluator said. “Still can win on the outside and get you tough yards. But you wonder what you’re getting from him next year with the quarterback situation unsettled.”

An AFC offensive coach points out Adams missed on a few plays last season that he’d normally convert and played through some injuries.

“Still really good but failed to make a few plays I’ve seen him make and it seemed he was playing through a few nicks and bruises at the end,” an AFC offensive coach said.