Chargers
Chargers WR Keenan Allen believes that he was undervalued in free agency.
“I thought I got a little bit downplayed,’” Allen said, via ESPN, about free agency. He added that he enjoyed having a chip on his shoulder, but “not for this cheap.”
- Chargers S Derwin James received a $17,389 fine for a leg whip.
- According to Jordan Schultz, Chargers S Elijah Molden is dealing with a hamstring injury but should only miss one more game and won’t need to go on injured reserve.
Chargers
The Chargers are having a productive start to their season with WRs Keenan Allen, Quentin Johnston, and Ladd McConkey all ranked within the top 25 in yards. McConkey thinks their receivers are all playing with confidence after their offense went through growing pains last season.
“Last year we had some growing pains as a whole from top to bottom,” McConkey said, via Kris Rhim of ESPN. “Just trying to match, trying to figure out our roles, figure out who we’re going to be. And now I feel like we’ve kind of homed in on that. We’re all playing more confident, we’re having fun.”
Johnston asked himself if he was doing enough last season and went into the offseason program dedicated to improving.
“I was asking myself the hard questions of, ‘Am I doing enough for the offense? Am I studying enough?’” Johnston said. “So, with that, everybody came back to camp with a plan. We were all on one accord.”
Allen returned to Los Angeles on a one-year $3 million contract as a free agent and didn’t expect his market to be downplayed as much as it did.
“I thought I got a little bit downplayed, but not for this cheap,” Allen said.
Raiders
Raiders QB Geno Smith made a costly mistake when trying to fit a pass in a tight window to WR Jakobi Meyers in the fourth quarter, resulting in an interception. Las Vegas HC Pete Carroll wants to watch the film to see what other options Smith had.
“I’m not supporting some of the choices there,” Carroll said, via Ryan McFadden of ESPN. “I need to see what happened, though. I want to see if he had other options.”
Smith tossed three interceptions in Week 2’s Monday Night loss to the Chargers, saying he needs to learn from the mistakes he committed.
“Those are things that I got to learn from and be better at,” Smith said. “Anything that doesn’t look right out there, [I] put that on my shoulders. I feel like I got to be a lot better for our guys. I know I have to, and I will be.”
Carroll’s primary focus is on determining why they passed on plays underneath and instead took deep shots.
“I know that the picks are a big issue, but that’s not my concern,” Carroll said. “My concern is why we didn’t get the bulk thrown and caught underneath, and we wound up taking those shots.”
The post AFC Notes: Keenan Allen, Ladd McConkey, Geno Smith, Chargers, Raiders appeared first on NFLTradeRumors.co.