NFC East Notes: Cowboys, Eagles, Giants

Cowboys

• The NFL officially reinstated Cowboys DE Randy Gregory from suspension on Tuesday. (NFLTR)
• Todd Archer reports that because Gregory served two suspensions, the Cowboys have him under contract through the 2020 season as part of his four-year rookie contract.
• Sources have told Calvin Watkins that Gregory will be in Stage 3 of the league substance abuse program for two years.

Eagles

Eagles veteran DE Chris Long explained in an interview with Sirius XM NFL Radio that he won’t want to keep playing when he gets to the point where he’s only playing a “really abbreviated role.”

“Listen, as a competitor, I’m always like, if my coach says, ‘Hey, you’ve got to play 60 plays this week,’ I’m going to smile, because I like to play football,” Long said. “When it comes to the point where I’m playing a really abbreviated role, I don’t want to play anymore. Yeah, 50 percent of the plays was great. I felt great physically. I felt as good as I’ve felt in the last couple years, because of years with injuries and what not. But there were games where (Brandon Graham) might get dinged or somebody got dinged and my snap count got up around 55 and I think I play my best ball when I get those opportunities because I can get in a rhythm.

“In St. Louis, when I came in the league back in the day — and teams are going away from this — I hate to sound old like the game’s changing, but D-linemen, we played a lot more plays. In 2009-2010, it wasn’t abnormal to get up in the 70s. I remember one game against Jacksonville, I played 83 plays. So that’s a big adjustment for your ego as a player and for your body as well, for getting into a rhythm as a rusher and those types of things. I think (defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz) does a great job of keeping everybody fresh, but I do get excited when I get an opportunity to carry a little bit more of the load.”

Giants

Giants QB Davis Webb says he’s out to prove himself in 2018 to the new coaching staff.

“Preseason, postseason, regular season, [it] does not matter,” Webb said, via Giants.com. “You’ve got to come bring it each and every [game day]. That’s what we work for. That’s why we put so much preparation into each and every week, and I put a lot of preparation in and I’m as ready as I can be. Now it’s going out there and proving it. I’m excited to get some opportunities, hopefully this season to play a little ball with Eli and the guys and have a lot of fun doing it.”

Webb added that he’s expected to work with new HC Pat Shurmur and OC Mike Shula.

“Man, Coach Shumur and Coach Shula, if you look at their track record, they’ve had so much success on offense, both in Minnesota and Carolina,” Webb said. “So Eli, me, Alex [Tanney] and Kyle [Lauletta], we come to work every single day, we’re eager to learn because they’ve been around so many good quarterbacks from Cam Newton to Case Keenum, Sam Bradford in the past, and they’ve been around so many good players.

“So we’re just trying to take it all in and the fun thing about this offense is we’re installing something new every single day. It’s always something new. We’re trying to be multiple both in the run game, the pass game, formationally – we want to be a very hard offense to stop and that starts with our two great coaches calling the plays.”