AFC Notes: Frank Clark, Chiefs, Raiders

Frank Clark

After restructuring his deal to essentially take a pay cut and stay in Kansas City, Chiefs DE Frank Clark faces a pivotal 2022 season. The Chiefs still need him to be good and spearhead their pass rush, while he needs a big season to either return to Kansas City or juice his market for his next team in 2023. 

“I really like Frank,” Chiefs HC Andy Reid said via the Athletic’s Nate Taylor. “He’s got a good heart. I don’t think this past year was his best year, but I know there’s a good year in there. I think this offseason will be very important, how he handles it conditioning-wise and so on. He can still play. He’s just got to have a good offseason. He knows he didn’t have his best year. He’ll come in and have a good year this year and get a chance to either stay with us or move on. He understands the business. He’s a smart kid.”

Chiefs

• Chiefs GM Brett Veach indicated that they have identified “16-18 prospects” with a first-round grade in the 2022 NFL Draft. (Nate Taylor)
• Veach said OT Lucas Niang (knee) “could be ready” by the end of training camp. (Herbie Teope)
• The Chiefs hosted Coastal Carolina RB Shermari Jones for a pre-draft visit. (Aaron Wilson)

• The Chiefs hosted Florida Atlantic CB Zyon Gilbert for a top 30 visit. (Justin Melo)

Raiders

Raiders GM Dave Ziegler said he and HC Josh McDaniels are on the same page when it comes to identifying personnel fits for the team, which isn’t a big surprise since they worked together in New England for a while. 

“Typically we see players the same,” Ziegler said, via Raiders Wire. “Like if we end up watching players separately, we’re going to come back and I would say the vast majority of those players we’ll see the same. There’s always going to be some one-offs here and there where we just see it differently and those are the guys where we end up sitting down and working through a little bit more throughout the process to try and find some common ground and learn why we saw those players differently. But for the most part, yeah, we see a lot of things the same when it comes to evaluating players. We talked about our scouting system before but we look at players and the role that they’re going to fill and so often we see those players and what the role is the same.”