Chargers

Chargers GM Joe Hortiz talked to reporters about the age of first-round DE Akheem Mesidor, who will turn 26 during his first NFL season.

“We interviewed him in Indy. You felt that in the room,” Hortiz said, via ChargersWire.com. “He’s experienced. He got an education in football at Miami. … Age is just a number.” “He had one year of issues. We thoroughly evaluate everyone medically,” Hortiz said.

Chiefs

Kansas City traded up three spots to No. 6 overall in the first round to grab LSU CB Mansoor Delane after trading CB Trent McDuffie away. Chiefs GM Brett Veach was clear that Delane was their target the entire process, assuming Texas Tech DE David Bailey and Ohio State LB Arvell Reese were gone.

“[I]t’s funny because, three, four weeks ago, when we were going through the ’30’ visits, I bumped Steve [Spagnuolo] and said, ‘We’re going to bring our corner in,’” Veach said, via Myles Simmons of Pro Football Talk. “And he said, ‘Don’t bring him in. Just don’t bring him in. Let’s just Zoom him. Let’s keep it quiet.’

“I thought we did a good job. I think a lot of people thought we might go offensive line there. But this was our guy the whole time. Again, assuming [David] Bailey and [Arvell] Reese were off the board — again, great players. But we had Delane right up there. And it’s hard to find good corners. And I know that we’ve done well over the years of addressing corners late. But when you’re kind of within reach of a top corner, we did that a couple of years ago, I think we traded a 3 and a 4 to get McDuffie. So, traded a 3 and a 5 to get Mansoor Delane, so we’re extremely excited.”

“We feel like he was the most complete corner. I’m sure he was the consensus No. 1 corner,” said Veach, “When you’re picking at No. 9, and you’re right there, and you can get the No. 1 corner in the draft, you go get him.”

Chiefs HC Andy Reid talked to reporters about the trade up for Delane, as well as the selection of DT Peter Woods out of Clemson later in the round with No. 29.

“We ended up trading up for him,” Reid said, via NFL.com. “We thought that was important. I know a lot of the mock drafts and all that had us taking him at that spot, the ninth spot, and then people above us we knew were also interested at corner, so we felt like we needed to go up and snag him. Very similar to we did with (Trent) McDuffie when you really look at it. I think he’ll come in and contribute. Like all the guys, they’ve got to earn their spot on team and so on, but he’ll definitely have an opportunity to do that. He’s a heck of player, heck of a kid. … Tremendous amount of energy, great ball skills, great feet, good size and good speed on top of all that.”

“This is a kid we had our eye on right from the beginning,” Reid said of Woods. “He’s a defensive tackle, he’s got great athletic ability. I think when you watch him, his highlights, you’ll see that. Just a tremendous athlete, whether it’s in the pass game or the run game. Great feet. Great hands, escapability with his hands on sheds, and he’s also a great kid.”

• Chiefs’ recently signed QB Justin Fields said he elected to sign with Kansas City because of their winning culture: “Just the winning, to be honest, finding ways to win. Just having that culture, similar to when I was in Pittsburgh, just that winning mindset. You can tell why that happens.” (Nate Taylor)

Raiders

Raiders GM John Spytek knew that QB Fernando Mendoza would be the first pick for some time, but specifically pointed to a moment in February where Mendoza dazzled Spytek with his intellect.

“Well, first of all, his recall was incredible,” Spytek said of watching tape with Mendoza, via RaidersWire.com. “You could just put the play up there, and it would be from Week Two, and before you even push play, he knew what it was. He could talk you through it. They weren’t all sunshine and rainbow plays either. There were some of them he screwed up, ‘Oh yeah, I should have made this read.’ And there was an honesty and a self-awareness to it, but also, I mean, it was like that, and he had it. And I’ve been a part of a few other quarterback interviews like that before, but not very many.”