AFC Notes: Tom Brady, Buccaneers, Falcons, Marcus Mariota, Panthers

Buccaneers

Buccaneers QB Tom Brady feels the team has been too inconsistent this season and thinks that they must improve their “effort level on gameday.” 

“There’s definitely some things we do well; there’s a lot of things we don’t do well,” Brady said, via JoeBucsFan. “I think too much of good, bad, good, bad, good, bad, leaves you average. And no one’s trying to be average. If you want to be a great team, you gotta be way better than average. So correcting our mistakes, improving our effort — which, that’s probably the most embarrassing part of our team is our effort level on gameday, and that’s something we better fix.”

Buccaneers HC Todd Bowles said that losing three consecutive games prior to Week 10 left a “very sour taste” for them. 

“It was huge [to beat the Rams] after losing three weeks in a row, you get very sour and you have a very sour taste in your mouth for a long time, not from lack of effort, but lack of execution, lack of doing things right,” Bowles said.

Falcons

Falcons QB Marcus Mariota said he understood 2022 would likely be his last opportunity to have a starting role prior to signing with Atlanta as a free agent. 

“When I was going into free agency, I kind of understood that if I got a chance to play again, it was really going to be probably my last shot,” Mariota said, via Michael Rothstein of ESPN. “Most guys don’t even really get a second shot.”

Mariota feels that he still has a future with the Falcons and is “redeeming myself” from his time with the Titans. 

“To be able to not only keep this job and maybe have a future here was important to me, and I am glad it is here with these guys, with Coach Smith and this staff,” Mariota said. “Because like I said from before, it was almost a point of, just like, redeeming myself from a previous stint that I wanted to come here and prove that I can do it.”

As for attempting passes downfield, Mariota said that it’s important to keep defenses uncertain about their approach given they are a rushing-oriented offense. 

“Those things are not the highest percentage, right? You’re taking low percentage shots, but you have to be able to do that,” Mariota said. “Especially with the way we run the football because it creates just a little bit of uncertainty on the defense of what you’re trying to do.”

Panthers

• Panthers’ interim HC Steve Wilks said that QB P.J. Walker will continue as their starter “as I stand here today.” (Darin Gantt)
• Wilks added that he’ll continue evaluating Walker, Baker Mayfield, and Sam Darnold ahead of Week 11 against the Ravens. (Augusta Stone)