Broncos

The Broncos have added three players from the University of Illinois in recent times, including seventh-round S Miles Scott, second-year WR Pat Bryant, and fourth-year G Alex Palczewski. When asked about Palczewski, HC Sean Payton said he’s tough, smart, and “gets the job done.” 

“Tough, smart,” Payton said, via Luca Evans of the Denver Post. “He’s played a lot of football. It’s not always pretty, but there is this quality of — he gets the job done.”

Illinois HC Bret Bielema reflected on Payton’s praise of Palczewski, saying toughness and intelligence are things they preach “every day.” 

“Tough, smart, dependable has nothing to do with your ability — it has to do with the way you think and act, right?” Bielema said. “And here’s Sean Payton saying two words that we preach every day.”

Bielema thinks Denver has a clear vision of the identity they are trying to create and thinks they do an “unbelievable amount of recon” on prospects they are looking to bring in. 

“I would tell you the Denver Broncos — in my opinion, they know who they are and they know who they want to be,” Bielema said. “And they target players, and do an unbelievable amount of recon to try and make sure that what they’re looking at is the reality of what they’re going to get.”

Chargers

Chargers TE David Njoku spoke about his decision to wait until after the draft to sign with Los Angeles, even after he had worked out for the Ravens during the free agency process.

“I could’ve signed before the draft in other places, but I chose to come here because I thought it was the best fit for me,” Njoku said Tuesday, via the team’s official website. “More so, just finding the perfect fit that I thought would be for me personally. The best spot I could be successful in. When I visited here, I really enjoyed it. I met with the coaches, the owners, everything.”

“For starters, we have a great quarterback here,” Njoku later added. “Mike McDaniel is good, the head coach, Jim [Harbaugh]. It was really a cumulative of things that made me decide to come here. I feel like we can be destructive. We got the tools, we got the keys, we got the players to do it all. It’s up to us to put it all together.”

Raiders 

The Falcons decided to move on from Kirk Cousins this offseason, enabling him to sign with the Raiders. Atlanta QB Michael Penix said Las Vegas is inheriting a great mentor for rookie QB Fernando Mendoza, commenting that Cousins was great at helping him prepare for each game. 

“[Mendoza is] going to get a great guy. Before the football player, you look at Kirk as a man, as a husband, as a father, he’s always been great and the way that he does anything is how he does everything,” Penix said, via Marc Raimondi of ESPN. “So, it’s like the person that he was for me, just helping me make sure I was locked in each and every day, make sure I understood some of the reads and some of the things that you would get in the league.”