Buccaneers
Buccaneers’ QB Tom Brady feels like he has found his footing in Tampa Bay and will continue to rehab his MCL. Most recently, he has gotten rid of the knee brace and is feeling comfortable.
“I’ve found my voice more. I really enjoy being around my teammates, my coaches,” Brady said, via Buccaneers.com. “It’s been a different environment. Just really enjoying the experience of playing football, playing with this group of guys. You guys are catching me on a bad day today. We had a really (expletive) practice, so I’m not feeling great about what we did today. It is what it is.”
“It feels good now,” Brady said in regards to his knee. “It was not my favorite offseason of all time. I hadn’t had surgery in a long time, so you kind of forget the rehab process and so forth. It’s kind of a long, arduous offseason when you go through rehab like that. I got a lot of time with my family and stuff, so that was really enjoyable. But I’m happy to be back to work and, yeah, I’ve just got to get out and try to get better tomorrow.”
Falcons
Falcons GM Terry Fontenot believes the adversity surrounding Atlanta’s cap situation going into the offseason helped shape the organization for success in the future.
“As corny and cliché as it sounds, those things can really shape you as an organization,” Fontenot said, via Scott Bair of the team’s official site. “It can really shape our relationships in the building, with our scouts and coaches, our operations people.”
Fontenot reiterated that their salary cap situation was challenging after entering the offseason $20 million over the threshold.
“The cap was a challenge,” Fontenot said. “We had to make some tough, difficult decisions, and yet we love where we are and the players we were able to sign. We were honest with them, and we’re happy to have people who love ball and love to go compete and want to be a part of this. We had some players who took some pay cuts and did some things for us. It was a huge challenge, but we saw it as an opportunity. Yeah, it wasn’t easy to get to this point. Nothing is going to be easy, and that’s okay. We’re ready to work hard, and we’re excited to be where we are.”
Fontenot believes its unfair to label the Falcons as a rebuilding team and thinks they have capable “players, coaches, staff, and everyone” to succeed.
“There is a bunker mentality with us,” Fontenot said. “It is disrespectful to say we’re not going to be a good football team or that we’re in a rebuilding mode. The players, coaches, staff, and everyone here, we put a lot into this. We’re excited about it. We have confidence in ourselves, and we believe in the people here.”
Saints
Saints’ RB Alvin Kamara spoke about how both QB Jameis Winston and QB Taysom Hill have attempted to build chemistry with him.
“Me and Jameis have talked a lot,” Kamara said, via Mike Triplett of ESPN. “He comes to me like — he wants to know, ‘How do you see this? How do you like this?’ I’m like, ‘Jameis we’re gonna get it. It’s alright. We’ve got a long time before we’ve got to be perfect.’ He’s just eager to learn and I love that about him. He wants everything right now. But it’s a process and he understands that too. But he’s still like, ‘I understand it’s a process, but let’s go.’ And then Taysom, we’ve had time on task with a lot of these things and he’s still the same way. he’s trying to learn the little intricacies and tricks, and just trying to be better. That’s what everybody’s doing.”
- Saints’ CB Brian Poole signed a one-year deal worth $990,000 and WR Chris Hogan signed a two-year deal which will pay him $1.075 million each season. This leaves the Saints with $11.2 million in cap space heading into the season. (Katherine Terrell)
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