NFC Notes: 49ers, Cardinals, Rams, Seahawks

49ers

Week 1 for the 49ers provided the first look at their planned quarterback committee between veteran Jimmy Garoppolo and first-round rookie Trey Lance. Garoppolo started, played the majority of the game and played well in a win that wasn’t really as close as the final score. Lance sprinkled in for a handful of plays, though, and tossed a touchdown of his own. Garoppolo obviously doesn’t love coming out of the game but he’s willing to put that aside if it helps the team. 

“Throughout the week, you try to plan as well as you can,” Garoppolo said via Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer. “But just situationally, you never know what Kyle’s feeling or what he’s gonna call, what he was setting up on the prior play. I think just throughout the week, you kinda get a feel for it. Short yardage, things like that, you kinda have a good idea of what’s gonna happen. I don’t know, it’s just one of those things that you gotta check your ego at the door really. That’s what it really comes down to. And it’s tough as a quarterback but it is what it is.”

• The Athletic’s David Lombardi says the 49ers have an open dialogue with veteran CB Richard Sherman, and something could happen on that front a little later in the season once Sherman sorts out his personal life and works back into playing shape.
• 49ers HC Kyle Shanahan said he is “holding out hope” CB Emmanuel Moseley will play this week. (Eric Branch) 
• Shanahan added RB Jeff Wilson Jr. is “definitely on schedule to come back” in 6-8 weeks. (Nick Wagoner)

Cardinals

The Cardinals set out this offseason to become a more disciplined team and eliminate costly turnovers. The additions of WR A.J. Green, DE J.J. Watt, C Rodney Hudson, amongst others, have helped set the culture of accountability and discipline.

“I think there’s a level of impact of having veteran guys on the team and just having them for their insights and just their knowledge of the game,” WR Christian Kirk said, via SI’s Albert Breer. “But I think for the core guys, especially the young guys, young core guys on this team that’ve been together for the past two to three seasons, we’ve seen a lot. We’ve had to go through a lot of adversity, and we’ve learned along the way. We all understand and have learned from those mistakes and learned from our past. We all know the opportunity at hand, so I think it was more of a sense-of-urgency type thing, and that’s the attitude that’s been set from training camp, offseason and going into the season at practice and competing every day. Just knowing that we have the team and we have the guys who are on this to really take this thing to where we want to go. I think it was just more a heightened sense of urgency to make those plays that needed to be made.” And like he said, having guys like J.J. Watt, A.J. Green and Rodney Hudson around to show them the way hasn’t hurt.”

Kirk also praised OLB Chandler Jones and his five-sack performance against the Titans, while throwing his support behind Jones and saying that the team never had any doubt that he would come back strong from his torn bicep injury he suffered last year.

“I don’t think anybody in the locker room had any type of doubt or question on if Chan could come back and play,” Kirk said. “We all know the type of impact that he has when he’s on the field, and I got to see it up close, me and a couple other guys, just training with him in the offseason, the way he was working. We all said it, just watching him day-in and day-out during the offseason back in April and May, we’re like, ‘Yeah, Chandler, he’s locked in and we can tell he’s gonna be different this year.’ I think we started to see it with what he did today. It’s one of those things where you gotta shake your head because he’s just so good. He’s the best player on that field. He proved that today.” He’s also a free agent after the season, so his timing with all this could wind up being pretty advantageous.”

Rams

• Rams HC Sean McVay notes that DL Sebastian Joseph-Day suffered a knee injury on Sunday night but is expected to be available this upcoming Sunday. (Jourdan Rodrigue)

Seahawks

Seahawks HC Pete Carroll has been impressed by CB Blessuan Austin since he joined the team from New York.

“Wow, he’s a hitter,” Carroll said during a press conference on Wednesday. “He has a really aggressive and physical style of play, and that’s what I loved about what I saw. He’s got good size to him, but his willingness to throw his body around and give you everything he’s got is what jumped off of the film to me. I don’t know what happened there, I don’t care, but the style that he brings is something that I was excited about bringing to the club.”

• Seahawks HC Pete Carroll said that RB Rashaad Penny has a calf strain and will “take us a bit to figure out what the return would be on that.” He also notes that the team feels good about it’s depth at the running back position. (John Boyle)
• Carroll also mentions that the team will continue rotating DB Ugo Amadi and DB Marquise Blair at the nickel position. (Boyle)
• Seahawks former first-round DE L.J. Collier was a healthy scratch in Week 1 against the Colts, which Carroll said is indicative of the depth of Seattle’s defensive line: “We had everybody healthy and that’s just worked out with the way we stacked it up this time around. The (inactive list) is always in the question every week. It was just part of the makeup for this game (plan).” (Michael-Shawn Dugar)