AFC Training Camp Observations: Contracts, Connections and a Comeback

Gilberto Manzano says there’s plenty to love and hate this time of year, so he couldn’t resist weighing in on a few things as football kicks off.

There’s plenty to love and hate about NFL training camps.

Everyone is in the best shape of their life, and every player who started the summer on the physically unable to perform list is on track to play Week 1.

There’s also plenty of optimism this time of year, and the overreactions are out of control. For example, it seems every Chiefs wide receiver is destined to be a star No. 1 target.

And don’t get me started on reporters keeping track of quarterbacks’ completion percentages and interceptions in seven-on-seven drills with players sporting shorts.

I should probably type a few things I love about training camp. Seeing Josh Allen fulfill a young fan’s request of signing an autograph for his sister was awesome.

There’s plenty to see at training camp for fans and football scribes. Here’s what’s stood out so far among the AFC teams during the first week.

Herbert needs to turn his massive new extension into Lombardi trophies, something his Charger predecessors were unable to accomplish.  :: Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports

Chargers catch a break with Herbert

The Chargers have either gotten lucky many times or made many smart moves that have gotten overlooked in NFL history.

But how can a franchise with zero Super Bowls be called lucky? On the flip side, how can you feel bad for an organization that has gone from Drew Brees to Philip Rivers to Justin Herbert? On Wednesday, Herbert committed to the Chargers for another five seasons after signing his massive $262.5 million contract to become the highest-paid player in the NFL.

Herbert’s new contract offers more opportunities for the Chargers to turn their luck—or underrated football decisions—into Lombardi trophies and forget about their past shortcomings. But if they end the Herbert era the same way they did with Brees and Rivers, we can safely say the Chargers aren’t lucky.

Besides the one game that Tyrod Taylor started to kick off the 2020 season, the Chargers have had Brees, Rivers and Herbert start most of their games for the past two decades, and have no Super Bowl rings to show for it. Two all-time greats, and one of the league’s current star quarterbacks, who appears, at age 25, headed for a brighter future than his Chargers predecessors.

The Chargers caught a break at Taylor’s expense after a team trainer accidentally punctured his lung with a pain-killing injection before a Week 2 matchup against the Chiefs in 2020. Herbert, who wasn’t expected to start as a rookie, was thrust into the spotlight and never looked back, giving the organization new life.

When the Chargers left San Diego and became an afterthought in their new home of Los Angeles, Herbert landed in their lap to start a new era with plenty of promise.

Perhaps it was lucky that Herbert was available with the No. 6 pick in 2020, the year that Rivers left to join the Colts in free agency. And maybe the Chargers should send the Dolphins yearly thank-you letters with Cheesecake Factory gift cards for drafting Tua Tagovailoa one spot ahead of Herbert.

The Chargers also caught a break—or made a smart decision—when they boldly traded the No. 1 pick in 2001 to the Falcons and passed on selecting Michael Vick. The Chargers traded down to No. 5 and picked legendary running back LaDainian Tomlinson and later took Brees in the second round.

When Eli Manning told the Chargers in 2004 not to draft him, that was fine after the dust settled because their QB depth chart had Brees and Rivers, the No. 4 pick in 2004.

When Brees won a Super Bowl with the Saints, that was fine because the Chargers expected to be in the mix yearly with a young gunslinger in Rivers.

So, again, the Chargers are either very lucky or strangely tormented, depending on how you want to view a franchise with plenty of quarterback success.

Herbert’s contract offers opportunities to finally make the luck and savvy football decisions truly count with a Super Bowl or two.

Aaron Rodgers–to–Garrett Wilson connection

#JetsTwitter wanted the video. We got the video.@GarrettWilson_V with the CRAZY TD. pic.twitter.com/qTMQAYDn0z

— New York Jets (@nyjets) July 23, 2023

I just said I don’t like overreactions, but the Wilson highlight catch videos from camp are making me look smart. I picked the Jets’ second-year wide receiver as my dark-horse candidate to win Offensive Player of the Year this season.

I’m definitely getting carried away, but it’s a good sign for the Jets that Rodgers and Wilson already have a strong connection. New York will need those two to play at an elite level to compete in a loaded conference and AFC East division.

And speaking of things I hate, Rodgers taking a $35 million pay cut for the good of the team will be brought up for years to come whenever a young star quarterback is entrenched in lengthy contract negotiations with their respective team.

If he truly wants to win, he’ll take a team-friendly deal like Rodgers.

No, Barbenheimer. (That’s me making up a fake name for the fake quote I just typed out.) Every situation is different. Many quarterbacks have won Super Bowls without taking pay cuts.

Rodgers has made a lot of money in his career, and he can afford to do that for one or two special seasons in New York.

Damar Hamlin’s comeback story

Here comes 3. 🫶@HamlinIsland | #BillsCamp pic.twitter.com/Ijj0Z5QGq3

— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) July 26, 2023

File this under: things I love to see at training camp. Hamlin’s stepping on the field put a smile on many people’s faces.

Participating in training camp was a major step in his comeback story. Hamlin was rushed to the hospital after suffering a cardiac arrest on the field during a Monday Night Football game against the Bengals last season.

Hamlin is the heavy betting favorite to win the league’s Comeback Player of the Year, but he has many obstacles to overcome, one being making the Bills’ 53-man roster. He has plenty of competition this summer, but no one is counting out Hamlin after the resilience he has shown the past year.

Sticking with the Bills, Stefon Diggs spoke for the first time Wednesday since mysteriously leaving the team’s minicamp for a day last month.

Diggs said he and the coaches are on the same page and called it a “family matters” issue that has been resolved. That’s good news for the Bills, because they have hit a wall the past two seasons, and they’re going to need Diggs to have a chance at getting over it in the competitive AFC.