AFC West Notes: Broncos, Chargers, Chiefs, Raiders

Broncos

New Broncos OLB Jeremiah Attaochu said facing his former team in Week 5 gives him “extra incentive” to play well. 

“Definitely a little extra incentive,” Attaochu said, via Ryan O’Halloran of the Denver Post. “I’ve been waiting on this for a long time.”

As for his role as a 3-4 outside linebacker, Attaochu said he played a similar position during college and his first four years in the NFL. 

“The things I’ll be asked to do as far as rushing and covering, that was my job description for three years in college (at Georgia Tech) and four years in the league,” said Attaochu. “It’s good to get back to the position where I started.”

Chargers

Chargers RB Melvin Gordon was active in his first game back from holdout last week but did not see any game action as the team eases him back. Gordon is expected to play this week against the Broncos, however, the team will continue to manage his reps to try and avoid injury. 

“He’s definitely going to have a workload this week, but not too big. I want to work him in. I don’t want to overdo it,” Chargers HC Anthony Lynn said in an interview on SiriusXM NFL Radio.

Chiefs

Chiefs WR Tyreek Hill could return as soon as this week from a clavicle injury that knocked him out of the season opener. Once he does come back, whether it’s this week or later, Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes expects Hill to reintegrate into the offense without skipping a beat. 

“I don’t think it will take long at all,” Mahomes said, via the team’s official website. “We worked all offseason, in training camp and everything like that and having the guys that we have, we just rotate guys through and get guys reps. I think just having him out there and being able to just pick back up where we left off will be something that’s easy to do.”

The Chiefs have been motoring along fine without Hill for most of the first quarter of the season but Mahomes says Hill brings something a little extra to the table. 

“Obviously, with the attention that he gets and how explosive he is, he can take a little shovel pass and take it to the house,” Mahomes said. “We have a lot of guys like that, but he’s the kind of guy that defenses have game plans for. Defenses have to account for him with one or two guys to try to figure out a way to stop him, and it helps everybody else out. Having him back and when he comes back, we’ll utilize him and the other guys to expand our offense and really take it to another level.”

Raiders

Raiders DC Paul Guenther joined a chorus of people in the Oakland organization protesting the suspension of LB Vontaze Burfict for the remainder of the 2019 season. Guenther, who coached Burfict in Cincinnati and was a major advocate in signing the veteran this offseason, echoed the common refrain of Burfict as “misunderstood.” 

“I know he’s been warned,” Guenther said via ESPN’s Paul Gutierrez. “But if you look around the league, I saw a quarterback get knocked out of a game the other day and, helmet-to-helmet, this guy doesn’t get ejected. I saw the opening kickoff of the Eagles-Lions game on Sept. 22), the right guard, helmet-to-helmet shot, knocks the guy out and stand over him. I saw a guy, the Eagles-Packers game, the first play of the game the defensive tackle, helmet-to-helmet, nothing happens.”

• According to NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport, Burfict’s appeal will be heard on Tuesday by former NFL LB and jointly-appointed appeals officer Derrick Brooks.