NFL Notes: Buccaneers, Falcons, Cowboys, Texans

Buccaneers

• Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times writes the Buccaneers “plan to start” WR Chris Godwin opposite Mike Evans this season.
• Stroud mentions that DeSean Jackson has “increasingly” been working from the slot and is “having a great training camp” up to this point.

Falcons

According to Peter King, Falcons TE Austin Hooper became Matt Ryan’s consistent workout partner this offseason and it’s apparently paying dividends for him in training camp.

“Hooper’s been like a dog this offseason—over and over, he’d catch everything Matt threw and bring it back,” said Falcons HC Dan Quinn.

Cowboys

Cowboys QB Dak Prescott tells Albert Breer of TheMMQB.com that the responsibility for his down 2017 season rests with him.

“It was me,” Prescott said. “It’s just about being more consistent. I simply was trying to do too much last year. And as I was trying to do too much, I was getting away from my simple reads. I was maybe passing by my second read to try to get to my third read, or skipping over one or two, trying to get to the big throw early, rushing things.

“I was wanting to make that big play, I was wanting to do the spectacular. [Ex-Mississippi State] coach [Dan] Mullen told me when I was in college, a lot of being a quarterback is making a lot of unspectacular plays that don’t necessarily look great but turn out to be the right thing. And so I think in Year 2, I was simply trying to do too much.”

Texans

Texans DE J.J. Watt tells Peter King that he believes he can return to his prior form after dealing with back issues and a broken leg the past few years.

“Right. I don’t expect anybody else to be convinced,” Watt said. “I don’t expect anybody outside to have any reason to believe that. The last two years were two very bad years. There were some dark moments in there. But I’ve also come out the other side of it better because of some of the experiences that I had. So I’m just taking it one day at a time. I’m not going to stand here and pretend like I can tell you exactly what’s going to happen in the season or how it’s going to go. But I feel very good with where I’m at right now. I’m not going to make any proclamations about comparing things to the past or what I’m going to do in the future, but I will say I feel very good.”

“For the first two months, you can’t walk,” Watt explained. “You can’t do anything. You pretty much lay on the couch 24 hours a day. You have to have people help take care of you. I watched TV for most of it. Tried to sleep. But my girlfriend, my family, some of my buddies, you literally have to have people help you get food, clean up the place. I can’t help bring in the groceries. I can’t help make the food. I can’t help clean up the dishes. I needed help getting a shower. I needed help cleaning up.”