AFC Notes: Justin Herbert, Kenneth Walker, Broncos, Chargers, Chiefs

AFC Notes: Justin Herbert, Kenneth Walker, Broncos, Chargers, Chiefs
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Broncos

Broncos RB Jaleel McLaughlin has struggled to get consistent playing time in Denver despite a promising rookie season as an undrafted free agent. Now he’s buried even further on the depth chart than last year. He explained why he chose to re-sign in Denver.

Man, I love it here,” McLaughlin said, via Broncos Wire. “I love being here in Denver and playing with this team. I love our offensive line, I love our quarterbacks, I love our receivers, I love our running back room, I love our defense… I want to win here. I told Coach (Sean) Payton I want to win here.”

Chargers

Mike McDaniel embarks on his first season as the Chargers’ offensive coordinator following his time as the Dolphins’ head coach. McDaniel thinks he’s entering an offense he’s not trying to overfix and that they have a “top-tier” quarterback in Justin Herbert.

“It wasn’t like I was trying fix something that was like, ‘This is broke,'” McDaniel said, via Eric Smith of the team’s site. “We’re looking at a player that is very, very talented and top tier in achievement his whole career. [We want to] try to take him to the next level where he can own certain things and really get the ball to his teammates as fast as possible and help efficiency of the offense.”

McDaniel said he asked Herbert to switch his front foot to his left foot, and the quarterback was very receptive.

“I don’t mandate it, but with Justin I really just showed him where I thought it would be advantageous,” McDaniel said. “He didn’t blink for a second and was excited to attack it. When you have players like that that go after their craft in that way, you can do things, change things that have been standardized in their game for years and you can do it with reasonable expectations and higher performance.”

Herbert said he’s “jumped on board” with McDaniel’s instructions.

“Mike just talked about how he saw the quarterback position being played and why he thought that was the best way,” Herbert said. “Jumped on board and got as many reps as we could and it’s been going good so far.”

Chiefs

The Chiefs feel that RB Kenneth Walker will complete their offense, and he is already drawing praise from G Trey Smith and QB Patrick Mahomes during offseason workouts.

“Definitely excited to work with K9,” Smith said of Walker, via Nate Taylor of ESPN.com. “He’s awesome, man. Another West Tennessee native, so that’s cool to have one of those guys back there. I know he’s tough.”

“You can tell he truly cares about football, he cares about his teammates,” Mahomes added. “If he’s not in the play, he’s helping the guys on the sideline and he’s trying to learn and [is] asking me questions.”

“He’s a beast, seeing him run the ball,” S Alohi Gilman noted. *“I’ve got a lot of respect for guys like that. They’re just about their business. I...