AFC Notes: Patrick Mahomes, George Paton, Antonio Pierce, Broncos, Chiefs, Raiders

Broncos

Broncos GM George Paton said the team is too collaborative for any one person to have the final say on roster decisions.

“That hasn’t come up, and it certainly does not come up with Sean,” Paton said, via Broncos Wire. “He’s so collaborative. We would not bring in a player that Sean and I didn’t agree upon. We wouldn’t bring in a player that two coaches probably [did not agree upon, or] a coach and a scout. We dissect it, and we get into it. We do deep dives. It has not really come up in my career very often, but it certainly hasn’t come up with Sean being here.”

Chiefs

Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes is looking forward to facing the Bills in Sunday’s Divisional Round given he’s close friends with Josh Allen. 

“When you compete against your friends, you almost want to win even more because of it,” Mahomes said, via Adam Teicher of ESPN. “Josh is a great dude. I respect the way he plays football and just the guy that he is. But when two guys that are ultracompetitive that are friends off the field go up against each other, we obviously both want to win. We see each other in the offseason, and you want to have a little bit of those bragging rights.”

Mahomes points out they lost to Buffalo 20-17 back in Week 14 and need to come prepared. 

“The Bills are a great challenge,” Mahomes said. “I think everybody understands that they’ve gotten my number a lot of times. We’ve been lucky enough to get them in the playoffs, but they beat us earlier this year. So we understand that we’re going to have to play our best football to win the game, especially at their place, but it’s not about ending someone’s season for us. It’s about just advancing, trying to find a way to survive and advance and get to the next round, and whatever that takes this weekend we’re going to try to do and try to go out there and win a football game.”

Mahomes and the Chiefs are accustomed to hosting their playoff games throughout his career but now must travel to the Bills’ Highmark Stadium.

“I’ve been lucky enough to play a lot of games at home at Arrowhead Stadium and just everything’s [fallen] that way,” Mahomes said. “Now we get the great opportunity to go on the road, play in a hostile environment, one that I haven’t been able to play with fans in the stands, and even though I know it’s going to be hostile and there’s going to be people talking trash and everything like that, I’m excited for it because it’s one of the best environments in football, and you want to do that, when you grow up watching these games, is playing the best environments and see what it’s like.”

Raiders

• Former Giants’ HC Tom Coughlin on the Raiders hiring of new HC Antonio Pierce: “I could not be prouder of Antonio Pierce being named head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders. I’m excited for him, his family, and the franchise. This is the team he grew up watching, and his belief in himself and in the players is why he is there. He is a great student of the game, a quick learner with a great attitude, and he is eager to get to work. The 2024 season just got a lot more interesting with him at the helm. Go get ‘em AP!” (Adam Schefter)