Broncos

Broncos QB Bo Nix is entering the third year of his career after leading Denver to the AFC Championship. Nix compared his mentality to his rookie campaign, saying he’s now trying to make big plays and has more confidence. 

“Year 1, I’m trying to just not mess up for the team,” Nix said, via Jeff Legwold of ESPN. “I feel like Year 3, I’m trying to make plays for the team. It’s just quite the different feeling. It’s just a confidence-level thing.”

Bronc os HC Sean Payton praised Nix’s ability to evade pressure and avoid taking sacks. 

“It’s one of his superpowers,” Payton said. “It’s hard to sack some quarterbacks; he’s one of them. That was something you saw on college tape. In our league when you take a sack, you just do the analytics on what your points become in that drive … and it all drops dramatically.”

Broncos RB J.K. Dobbins said Nix has an air of confidence about him this offseason that is rubbing off on the rest of the team. 

“Bo just walks in the room like he’s ready for anything,” Dobbins said. “And he is. He ain’t trying to walk like that, you know what I mean? That’s just that thing about him. You’re never going to feel you’re out of it with Bo. People can say whatever they want about Bo, about this and that, but Bo’s our guy. We all know it.”

Chiefs

Chiefs HC Andy Reid told reporters that he has no concerns about QB Patrick Mahomes moving on from the team, even after Reid eventually departs from Kansas City 

“I don’t worry about it because he’ll be here a lot longer than I am,” Reid said, via NFL.com. “Yeah, listen, he is all in. I mean, that covers everything. He’s all in, every day and I love that part of him.”

“I feel like your whole career though, you have to enjoy the moments,”  Mahomes noted. “To have that different perspective, now being a father is to enjoy the little moments and enjoy the time at camp, enjoy the cafeteria, because all of a sudden you’re going to look up, you’re not going to be coming back here (to training camp). And so, I hope that’s a long ways away, but I do enjoy getting to be here, listen to this music I’ve never heard of and just be that old guy at camp now and try to build those relationships with your teammates.”

Raiders

Raiders rookie QB Fernando Mendoza said his approach is to give his all in the system and accept the results, regardless of the outcome.

“The system that got me here, it’s a grinder system,” Mendoza said, via The Athletic. “It’s a system where I know I put a lot into it, and best-case (scenario), boom, it’s letting me have success already. And let’s say worst-worst-worst-case scenario, it doesn’t go my way, or it doesn’t go the team’s way. Then I can rest my head at night knowing I did everything I possibly (could). … I best served my teammates, I prepared, and I didn’t let them down.”

Mendoza spoke about the rookie curve and how much he still has left to learn.

“Rookie year, it really gets slammed up on you,” he said. “Like, ‘Boom, here’s your playbook, and here we go.’ Especially seeing Kirk Cousins in the room, who knows a lot. It’s like, ‘Wow, I thought I knew a lot. Holy shuck! I’m how far behind? I’ve got to study this to feel confident in my preparation and in myself.’”

Mendoza added that he’s not really persuaded by the Vegas nightlife and wants to keep his off-the-field time simple.

“Las Vegas is one of the entertainment capitals of the world,” he said. “But I have a job to do, and it’s football. I don’t have anybody that really relies on me, if that makes sense, so I can just be psycho about football. And then every once in a while, on an off day or night, I can go out to a movie and watch ‘Spiderman’ or ‘The Odyssey’ or something. In Vegas, there is a lot to do, and sometimes it can be seen as activities that wouldn’t be supporting a healthy football lifestyle. But there are different things that you can go see and do that aren’t degenerative activities, per se. There are some great restaurants. But I’m probably not going to be playing blackjack till late at night.”