Broncos

After rewarding CB Patrick Surtain II with a pay raise, Broncos HC Sean Payton spoke on the added flexibility of having excess cap space after years of dealing with dead cap.

“It feels good,” Payton said, via Brandon Walker of the Broncos Wire. “It’s important. It’s hard to do that with dead money, and when you do it with a record-setting amount, it’s a credit to everyone: the young players, coaches, scouts. So I don’t know that anyone can physically feel it or see it, but certainly it exists when it pertains to your budget.”

Chiefs

Chiefs DT Chris Jones had seven of the team’s 57 sacks in 2025 and is hoping to add many more in order to turn the team’s fortunes around for the 2026 season after a disappointing ending last year.

“We’ve got to get more sacks,” Jones said, via Pete Sweeney of the Kansas City Star. “Last year, we [finished] at the bottom [in] sacks, and I think it affected the defense tremendously. And if we want this defense to be a success, I gotta get more sacks.”

Raiders

Veteran QB Kirk Cousins doesn’t want the label of being a “mentor” to first-overall pick Fernando Mendoza and instead says the team’s quarterback group is a collaboration.

“[It’s] more of a narrative than it is the truth,” Cousins said Tuesday, via Ryan McFadden of ESPN. “They’re pretty good players, pretty experienced, and I’m learning a lot from them, too, and asking questions to them. Nobody’s leading more than someone else. I think we’re all a working force together, helping each other, giving feedback, giving perspective [and] giving another set of eyes.”

“I’ve always felt I prepare my best during the season when we can all kind of be together in that room in the evening, going over things together rather than working in our own,” Cousins added. “I think when we can kind of all be given feedback on each other, that’s when I think the best ideas come out.”