AFC West Notes: Broncos, Chargers, Chiefs

Broncos

The Broncos draft this week had a decided offensive flavor, as Broncos GM John Elway doubled up on receivers with Jerry Jeudy and KJ Hamler in his first two picks and also added OL Lloyd Cushenberry and TE Albert Okwuegbunam. Denver and new starting QB Drew Lock have to compete with the Chiefs and their incendiary offense in the AFC West and the draft showed Elway is well aware of that fact. 

“I felt that offensively, for us to be able to compete and give Drew a chance to be successful and us to be successful on the offensive side . . . we had to get some speed and we had to get some talent on that offensive side and some explosiveness on the offensive side,” Elway said via Aric DiLalla of the team’s website. “That’s why we decided to go that way. We played good defense last year and we’ll continue to play good defense this coming year, but we had to pick things up on the offensive side [with] that explosiveness and speed factor.”

The Broncos already had budding No. 1 WR Courtland Sutton and 2019 first-round TE Noah Fant, but adding more speed around them was paramount for Elway. Jeudy ran a 4.45 40-yard dash at the Combine, and while Hamler was hurt at the Combine and didn’t have the chance to put out an official 40 time because his pro day was canceled, Elway said they feel confident Hamler’s got legitimate 4.3 speed based off timing some of his highlights. 

“We’re going to have to score points to win in our division,” he said via NBC Sports’ Peter King. “Obviously at 15 we were thrilled that Jeudy still was there. And going into round two, we were focused on Hamler. He’s explosive and really tough. It’s hard to go 80 yards in this league, and we feel like we drafted two guys who can. Kansas City has those guys, and the quarterback [Patrick Mahomes] is obviously going to be great for a long time.”

Chargers

Colts HC Anthony Lynn has been consistent all offseason that if the Chargers need to start QB Tyrod Taylor in 2020, he has full confidence in Taylor’s abilities. But after the Chargers drafted Oregon QB Justin Herbert No. 6 overall on Thursday, Lynn said Taylor doesn’t have the guarantee of starting for the entire season. 

“We’re going into this thing: Day 1, Tyrod Taylor’s going to be starting it off,” Lynn said via Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer. “He’s earned that right. His teammates respect the hell out of him, he’s a leader on this football team. Our young quarterback’s gonna learn a lot from Tyrod Taylor. Tyrod Taylor’s one of the most respected players on our team, and he doesn’t say a whole lot either. . . . [But] it’s a competition, bro. There’s a competition at every position, not just this one. I can’t just say Tyrod’s gonna be the starting quarterback for the whole year if this young man goes in there and wins the job.”

Chiefs

  • Chiefs GM Brett Veach said they have time and hopefully they will be able to re-sign Chris Jones and Patrick Mahomes.
  • James Palmer adds that it sounded like Veach would like to get them done before training camp, but they have a shorter timetable with Jones on the franchise tag.

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