AFC Notes: Chiefs AFC Championship, Jets, Pete Carroll, Raiders

Chiefs

The Chiefs are back to the Super Bowl after its narrow 32-29 win over the Bills in the AFC Championship game. CB Trent McDuffie said everyone around the team trusts Patrick Mahomes to execute in the most intense moments. 

“No doubt,” McDuffie said, via Albert Breer of SI. “Everybody around here will tell you when it’s a tie game, at the end of the game, if Pat has the ball, there’s nobody believing that he won’t get the job done. It’s been great to be on the opposite side and watch, but also learn about how they do their things. Being able to practice against Pat and Travis [Kelce] and pick their brain, it’s helped our defense so much. You can see the confidence flowing out of everybody.”

Mahomes explained HC Andy Reid has always shown trust in their players. 

“[Andy Reid] trusts us,” Mahomes said. “That’s how we’ve built this thing that we’ve built. It’s all about trusting the players to go out and make the plays. We’re conservative in certain moments, we play by the tempo of the game and then we decide. It’s a lot of trust on offense, defense and special teams. That’s what makes us so great, is it’s not just one guy, it’s everybody.”

Chiefs DC Steve Spagnuolo drew praise for Kansas City’s final defensive stand against Buffalo. LB Nick Bolton compared Spagnuolo to a pitcher setting up for a curveball. 

“I say all the time, Spags is like a pitcher always setting up his curveball,” Bolton said. “Throughout the game, we’re trying to present different things, see what they’re going to do. It was one of these critical downs, we dialed up the pressure and got home.”

Jets

• Regarding his time as the Jets interim HC, new Falcons DC Jeff Ulbrich admitted fault in his lack of delegations: “There is an element of a failure for myself in that way because I didn’t delegate it, I didn’t. I just took it all on myself. In my mind’s eye, I was trying to create continuity and I didn’t want to fracture the staff… I thought the best thing for me to do at that point in time was just try to keep everybody in the same role that they had just so we could keep things rolling — and it wasn’t the right thing to do.” (Richi Cimini)
• He continued: “As I look back, I should have delegated, I should have given the defensive coordinator responsibilities to someone else and because it’s just, in my opinion, it is too hard, especially when it’s thrown on you in the middle of the season.” (Cimini)
• Ulbrich was asked what he learned during his time in charge where he could see how the team ran from a different lens: “I learned even more than I knew the value of truth tellers on your staff. I think sometimes as an assistant coach you take it as, ‘I’m going to eliminate every problem from the head coach’s table so he can thrive and do his thing,’ when in reality there are certain things that need to be taken off the head coach’s table but there are certain things that need to be on his table.” (Zack Rosenblatt)
• He touched on the way things were different when he took over as the head coach: “A lot of times what I found in the interim role was that even though it was interim, I felt the shift in the way people talked to me and treated me and what they said to me. The lack of truth sometimes was really detrimental. It reinforced the idea that Rah is going to need me in that way to eliminate some of the blind spots he might have.” (Rosenblatt)
• New Jets GM Darren Mougey believes the team has a good building point of players that they need to improve on. (Rosenblatt)
• Mougey explained the ownership’s unwavering competitiveness and care about their players and fans. (Rosenblatt)
• Regarding his strategy, Mougey plans to draft and develop first and foremost while being strategic in free agency. (Cimini)
• New Jets HC Aaron Glenn said “Aaron Rodgers will be talked about” and they will make a decision after evaluating the roster. (Rosenblatt)
• Glenn hopes this is his last stop while mentioning how special it is to go back to where his NFL career began: “You can’t write a better story than that.” (Connor Hughes)
• New York owner Woody Johnson after a tough year: “I have to look in the mirror and be a better owner.” (Rosenblatt)
• Johnson said both Glenn and Mougey will report to him directly. (Rosenblatt)
• Glenn is not going to call plays on defense so he can focus on being the best head coach possible. (Rosenblatt)

Raiders 

During the Raiders’ introductory press conference, new GM John Spytek said HC Pete Carroll, Spytek said Carroll has people excited around the entire organization. 

“He’s got people excited,” Spytek said, via Vic Tafur of The Athletic. “I’ve just been a fan for so long, and to get a chance to sit up here alongside him today and now work alongside him is an honor. I’m just fired up.”

When asked about his coaching style, Carroll responded that he doesn’t try to duplicate other teams in the league and wants his players to have fun. 

“I don’t do stuff like everybody else,” Carroll said. “Really that’s not my goal; to try to match up how other people have run this thing. … You’re either competing or you’re not, and I’m always competing. That’s how we’ll get it done in every way possible… To me, this game should be fun. If we’re not having fun, I’m screwing it up, and we’re going to have fun in this room right here with our team.”

As for building their roster, Carroll said they did “a lot of transitions and transactions” toward building the right group. He plans on replicating that in Las Vegas and is “in total concert” with Spytek. 

“(In) Seattle, we went through a lot of transitions and transactions, and it was to find the right people,” Carroll said. “John and I are in total concert of the kinds of people that we’re going to build this program around. There’s a way to get to that, and we’ve been through this, and it’s really exciting to have the opportunity to do it again.”