AFC West Notes: Broncos, Chargers, Chiefs

Broncos

• Mark Kiszla of the Denver Post says that the “worst-kept secret” at the Senior Bowl is that Broncos executive VP John Elway is “smitten” with Missouri QB Drew Lock. 
• Ryan O’Halloran mentions that Elway was at Lock’s game against Arkansas back in November and attended all three Senior Bowl practices last week. O’Halloran adds that Elway “barely left the quarterback group” during practice. 
• However, O’Halloran believes the Broncos are actually targeting multiple quarterbacks with likely being one of them. 
• O’Halloran doesn’t think that Lock is worth trading up to get in round one and would instead take a cornerback at No. 10 overall such as LSU’s Greedy Williams and Georgia’s Deandre Baker and then see how things play out in round before deciding whether to trade back up for a quarterback such as WVU’s Will Grier. 

Chargers

Chargers G Forrest Lamp mentioned that he’s hoping having a full offseason will lead to him securing a starting job in 2019. 

“I wanted to play,” Lamp said, via Chargers.com. “[But] once you have a line that’s been playing together since April 16 when OTAs started, they’ve been together for three or four months, you’re not going to break that up. . . .Everybody wants to play or else you wouldn’t be here. So missing my rookie year, and then not really playing this year, even though I was practicing and whatnot, it’s hard because you just want to play. That’s why you’re here.”

Chiefs

• Albert Breer points out that the Chiefs set the floor in terms of annual salary for WR Tyreek Hill last year when they agreed to pay Sammy Watkins $16 million per year over three seasons. 
• According to Breer, the Chiefs would love to re-sign DT Chris Jones. However, top defensive tackles are making significant money nowadays with Aaron Donald securing $22.5 million per year. 
• Breer considers OLB Dee Ford to be a “natural candidate” for the franchise tag. One possibility suggested by Breer is for Kansas City to tag Ford and then try to sign him to a long-term deal. 
• If the Chiefs signed Ford long-term, Breer wonders if veteran Justin Houston could be release a candidate, given that he carries a $21.1 million cap figure.