NFC Notes: 49ers, Cardinals, Matthew Stafford, Rams, Seahawks

49ers

49ers GM John Lynch said DT Javon Kinlaw is doing well in his rehab and the team plans to bring him along slowly instead of rushing him back into action.

“He’s doing really well, he really is,” Lynch said, via NBC Sports. “It’s nice to see Javon around with a smile. He’s not in pain anymore and he’s a big man. I think the plan is he could be back during the offseason program but we want to make sure he is fully rehabbed. We don’t want to rush this because he is so critical to our success.” 

Lynch acknowledged that Kinlaw has a high ceiling but the team needs him to be fully-healthy so that he can reach his potential.

“He has such a high ceiling,” Lynch said. “We want to see him healthy. There’s that mix – how do you do that because he is also a bigger guy. Pad level and all that is important. He needs reps but you can’t do it at the expense of his health.  So we just need to make sure and be very diligent and we are committed to doing that. That he’s healthy before he returns and if that means training camp, that means training camp.”

• PFN’s Tony Pauline writes the extension the Chiefs end up giving WR Tyreek Hill this offseason, as he’s entering the final year of his deal, will set the market for 49ers WR Deebo Samuel, who is also in the final year of his rookie deal.
• Arizona State RB Rachaad White confirmed he had a formal interview at the Combine with the 49ers. (Donnie Druin)

Cardinals

• Per Fansided’s Matt Lombardo, the word at the Combine is Cardinals RB James Conner could be looking at a deal worth $7-$8 million a year after a strong 2021 season. 
• The Cardinals aren’t taking calls for QB Kyler Murray, according to ESPN’s Josh Weinfuss.
• Weinfuss doesn’t believe Cardinals OLB Chandler Jones will return to the team in 2022.
• Weinfuss also gets the sense from conversations at the Combine that WR Christian Kirk will have a robust free-agent market this offseason.

Rams

• CBS Sports analyst and former agent Joel Corry writes Rams QB Matthew Stafford and his agent will essentially be able to name their price on a new deal after winning the Super Bowl. Corry would expect Stafford to match or surpass the $45 million per year standard at the top of the QB market, unless he makes it a point to tell his agent to take less. 
• Corry explains there are a number of precedents Stafford’s agent can point to, including what the average of consecutive franchise tags would be. He currently projects the tag in 2023 to be $43.5 million and a 20 percent increase for a tag the following year would be $52.8 million. That works out to $47.85 million a year. 
• Corry points out Stafford is due a $10 million roster bonus on March 20th that can become part of his signing bonus and stretched across the life of his extension, should he and the team agree upon one.
• He adds by signing an extension, the Rams could also potentially reduce Stafford’s $23 million cap hit in 2022.

Seahawks

One of the defining features of the Seahawks under HC Pete Carroll the past decade or so has been their signature, Cover 3 defense. It dominated the NFL when the Legion of Boom was in its heyday and it spread to a number of teams. But the current crop of talented, young passers makes a killing dicing up that system, and Carroll is making it a point going into 2022 to modernize. He’s been tweaking the system the past couple of years but the hires of Sean Desai and Karl Scott to work with the secondary signal a big shift away from the Cover 3 base. 

“The fact that our coordinators went all over the league on both sides of the ball … it got harder,” Carroll said via the Athletic’s Michael-Shawn Dugar. “It was hard on us. And so, we stayed with it. As I’ve been pecking away at it for really like four years now, with stuff we’ve done subtly — we made a bigger shift last year than we had (before) to just continue to adjust. Just needed to make it a legitimate shift.”

“We feel like we need to do everything,” Carroll added. “We need to use our single-high stuff, our two-high stuff, to mix that and do a really good job of that. Sean and Karl both bring a wide breadth of experience to help us with our looks to make it as intricate as we can, as difficult as we can, on the quarterback. We have been a little bit arrogant over the years (with) the way we play defense because we’ve been able to just play what we want to play. It’s not that time right now. It’s time to keep moving and keep growing.”