AFC West Notes: Broncos, Chargers, Chiefs

Broncos

• Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News reports the Jets had agreed to trade the No. 79 overall pick to the Broncos during the draft, but the Falcons selected C Matt Hennessy at No. 78 and prevented them from finalizing a deal. 
• Mehta notes that New York would have gained the No. 83 pick and an additional Day 3 selection, which could have been the Broncos’ No. 178 pick in the fifth round. 

Chargers

• Daniel Popper of The Athletic believes that QB Tyrod Taylor will start at least 12 games next season unless the Chargers lose several games.
• Popper adds that the team views Rayshawn Jenkins as their starting free safety, and sees the team re-signing or extending his contract as long as he continues to show improvement.
• As for LG Forrest Lamp, Popper doesn’t buy GM Tom Telesco‘s plan for Lamp to possibly start at left tackle, and believes the team will eventually sign LT Jason Peters.
• As for bringing in a veteran defensive back, Popper does not see the team adding a cornerback such as Logan Ryan, Darqueze Dennard, or Dre Kirkpatrick.

Chiefs

Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes spoke about his wish to repeat as Super Bowl champion during a conference call with the media on Friday.

“I think as a team a lot of the times when you win that Super Bowl you kind of relax,” Mahomes told James Palmer, via NBC Sports. “You feel like you’ve done it. You went out there and accomplished your goal and you relax a little bit during the offseason. But I think with our team, the little bit of a difference we have is it feels like every single guy on our team after we won the Super Bowl — we definitely celebrated for a week or two, and then after that, it was that mindset that we’re going to get back after it. We want to do this again. We’re bringing all these guys back. We’re bringing most of our crew back. We’re excited for the opportunity to go out there and compete again. I think having that mindset will hopefully keep us from relaxing or anything like that. I think that’s why teams don’t repeat, and it’s such a hard league. There is so much turnover that it’s hard to get that same spark and make that same run. I feel like we have a good chance to at least prepare ourselves to be ready to do that. So I’m excited for the opportunity.”