Chiefs
Chiefs DE Ashton Gillotte finished his rookie season with 38 tackles, three tackles for loss, and 1.5 sacks. Kansas City DL coach Joe Cullen is confident that the former third-round pick will continue developing as a pass rusher.
“Ashton has given us some really good plays, both in base and sub situations and playing the run really well,” Cullen said, via Nate Taylor of ESPN. “The hardest thing to do when you make that transition from college to the pros is your pass rush. It will come. It took George [until] Week 11 against the Rams in his rookie year to get his first [full] sack.”
As for DE Felix Anudike-Uzomah, Cullen thinks he was finally finding a role when his hamstring injury suffered in the preseason ended his entire year.
“I really felt bad for Felix,” Cullen said. “He’s progressing and you’re trying to give him a role, and then, bang. I told him there’s a silver lining in this: ‘You’re going to get healthy and then your time is going to come.’”
- CBS Sports’ Matt Zenitz reports the Chiefs are hiring Nebraska DL coach Terry Bradden as an assistant DL coach.
Raiders
When asked about working with minority owner Tom Brady, new Raiders HC Klint Kubiak said he is excited to bounce ideas off Brady and collaborate with him.
“Really excited to work with Tom,” Kubiak said via Saad Yousuf of The Athletic. “He made the mistake of giving me his cellphone number. He might wish he never did that because I’m going to be calling him a lot. What I’m excited about is that we have different offensive backgrounds and how we can pull ideas from each other. Obviously, he’s the greatest that’s ever done it. In the interview process, the passion that he spoke with on all things football got me excited about the opportunity to work with him. Plenty has been said or speculated about how that relationship’s going to go. That’s one of the main draws to come here is to get to work with (Brady), get to work with (Spytek). These are great football minds that if we collaborate the way we’re supposed to, we’re going to pull the best out of each other.”
Raiders
Raiders owner Mark Davis hinted at who the team is going to target with the first overall pick while announcing HC Klint Kubiak as the team’s next head coach.
“It came down to where we are this year,” Davis said, via Raiders Wire. “Having the first pick in the draft and everything and understanding that there’s a good chance we’ll go on the offensive side of the ball so it might be a good chance that we would want a young offensive mind that could grow with somebody.”
Raiders DE Maxx Crosby discussed his meeting with Kubiak and is excited to see him put his fingerprints on the offense.
“He runs a great system; he’s had a lot of success being an offensive coordinator,” Crosby said, via Raiders Wire. “You’ve seen what he’s done for Sam Darnold. He’s brought the best out of a lot of his players.”
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