AFC West Notes: Gardner Minshew, Steve Spagnuolo, Broncos, Chiefs, Raiders

Broncos

• Broncos HC Sean Payton talked about utilizing first-round QB Bo Nix‘s athleticism: “I think that he’s a little bit faster than we anticipated coming out of the draft. .. . It does give you more flexibility (as a play caller), especially on third down.” (Troy Renck)
• Payton also spoke on fourth-round WR Troy Franklin: “I think he’s progressing pretty quickly.” (Chris Tomasson)

Chiefs

The Chiefs took down the 49ers on the road thanks to another strong defensive performance. Kansas City HC Andy Reid credited DC Steve Spagnuolo for creating an urgency to improve despite the unit’s tremendous success a year ago.

“We’re trying to outdo what we did last year,” Reid said, via SI.com’s Albert Breer. “Spags started training camp this year, from day one, saying that he’s been a part of talented defenses that have fallen off the next year, and that he wasn’t going to allow that to happen this year. We have a motto: Demand better. We break it down with that motto every single day in practice. Demand better. We’re going to continue to push ourselves, continue to push this thing to the limit.”

“It’s coming into a program where you know what we do works and you buy into the program and the way that we do things, you believe in it, it allows you to play fast and free. You know what you’re doing. You’re confident in yourself. You’re confident in your teammates around you, and you’re confident in the calls that coach Spags is making. It’s going to allow you to make some plays.”

Raiders

The Raiders are set to go back to QB Gardner Minshew following QB Aidan O’Connell‘s thumb injury. Las Vegas HC Antonio Pierce wants Minshew to “get out of his own head” to limit turnovers. 

“He’s got to get out of his own head,” Pierce said, via PFT. “I mean, he’s a quarterback, he’s been in this league, he understands it. Obviously, we’ve encouraged him. Very positive on the sideline with everything that was going on yesterday. Our team was like, no blinking. That’s all he kept hearing on the sideline dealing with adversity.”

Pierce praised their defensive performance in Week 7’s 20-15 loss to the Rams. 

“I thought our defense did a good job of responding even on a sudden change they did score, but throughout the game we kept fighting. Even at the end of the game when we had a chance to get another stop, we did. Gave the offense the ball again with less than two minutes to see if we can go ahead for the win.”