AFC Notes: Justin Herbert, Deshaun Watson, Browns, Chargers, Chiefs

Browns

Browns HC Kevin Stefanski was asked what makes him confident QB Deshaun Watson will be able to get past some of the issues he’s had early this season. 

“Yeah, I think it’s never about one person,” Stefanski said, via Pro Football Talk. “I completely understand that the quarterback gets way too much of the credit, way too much of the blame. That’s just life of being a quarterback in the NFL. It’s the [same as the] head coach. You get all the credit, you don’t deserve it. You get all the blame, it doesn’t matter. You own it.

“So, I know what he’s made of. I know how he works, and I expect him to come in here ready to work tomorrow. That’s really where the focus is.”

Chargers

Chargers QB Justin Herbert said there’s been no panicking about their 0-2 start to the season. 

“Panicking is never gonna fix anything,” Herbert said, via Kris Rhim of ESPN. “And so, you know, it’s up to us to be able to fix that as an offense and score more points. And you know, we believe in the defense, and sometimes we’re gonna score a bunch of points. Sometimes, we’re not, but it’s up to us as a team to play together.”

Chargers S Derwin James reiterated they aren’t panicking about the recent results. 

“Definitely been frustrating,” James said. “We haven’t gotten the results that we wanted, but we will keep working hard. We’re not panicking. We’re not quitting, you know, turning our back on each other.”

Chiefs

Chiefs CB Trent McDuffie thinks their defense has grown “really close as a group” and every player is showing a lot of work ethic. 

“Honestly, I think it’s just coming off last year; we were a young group, we had to learn a lot,” McDuffie said, via ChiefsWire. “It’s like the whole defense came back again this year, and over OTAs and training camp, I feel like we’ve grown really close as a group, as far as unit-wise, and just overall as a defense, and I think a lot of guys kind of just come in here and just are willing to work each and every day.”

McDuffie added DC Steve Spagnuolo wants them to “stack days” with their development. 

“And that can be huge as far as just in the future, knowing that you’re just going to continue to stack days. And I think that’s what coach Spags (Steve Spagnuolo) is talking about. It just there’s a bunch of group of guys that are just like, well, here to do their job and do it at the best they can.”

McDuffie said their defense is hungry and feels like they could’ve produced more in 2022 despite winning the Super Bowl. 

“Like I said, we’re hungry,” McDuffie said. “I know, off of last year, based off of just stats and everything that went on. Yeah, we won the Super Bowl. But I know this defense definitely felt like we could have done more and produced more in coming to this year, this is something that we definitely had been looking at and want to continue to succeed with and show that, yeah, just because last week and the week before we held him to 9,14 points like this is a defense that’s going to continue to do that and be consistent with it.”