49ers
49ers RB Trey Sermon said San Francisco was a team he was eyeing during the draft.
“When I was making the transition to Ohio State, I was looking at a lot of outside zone,” Sermon said, via Jennifer Lee Chan. “The 49ers were definitely one of the teams that I looked at. Just going through the progressions and the reads because I knew when I got to Ohio State we were going to run a lot of that.”
Sermon also said the transition to the NFL so far has been smooth.
“It hasn’t been too difficult just making the transition,” Sermon said. “Some of the stuff is similar to what I did at Ohio State. I feel like my acclimation will be pretty smooth and it will be good.”
Cardinals
Cardinals RB Chase Edmonds said it’s “now or never” to seize a starting opportunity in their offense.
“It’s now or never,” Edmonds said, via Kyle Odegard of the team’s official site. “I’ve finally got my opportunity really and truly in front of me to have a pretty big role in this offense. It’s something I’ve been dying for, praying for, since my first three years in the NFL. It seemed like it would never happen, but I’ve finally got this opportunity, and I’ve got to make the most of it.”
Edmunds said he’s ready to prove himself as the Cardinals’ starter and isn’t focused on criticisms against him.
“I’m ready to run through a damn wall. I’m really ready to prove myself right. People don’t understand how bad. I get what people are saying. I get the arguments and (expletive), but I really couldn’t care less. I’m going to go out there and I’m going to ball out this year.”
Edmunds addressed doubts about his “frame” and inability to get more than 20-carries per game but expects to receive passes out of the backfield as well.
“I know there’s doubts about my frame and about how little I am and about, ‘Oh, he got injured when he had a full load,’ or, ‘Every time he gets a full load he doesn’t produce the same way,'” Edmonds said. “I read it all, bro. I may not be your typical 20-carry guy. Not every running back is a 20-carry guy. But I believe I’m certainly capable of being a 20-touch type-of-guy. Whether that’s 15 carries and five grabs, or 16 carries and four grabs. I feel like there’s unique ways you can get a player the ball a decent amount of time, and it doesn’t have to be a Derrick Henry or Nick Chubb style, just running up the middle. For people to believe I’m not that type of guy, that’s their opinion, but I believe if I have 20 touches in a game, I can make some special things happen.”
Edmunds feels that the Cardinals signing veteran RB James Conner instead of using a first-round pick on a running back was a sign that the organization believes in him going forward.
“You add a veteran running back, it’s like, ‘OK, this team believes in me and has a role for me in the future,'” Edmonds said. “When you draft a first-round running back – it’s a business, bro. He’s the guy for the next four years.”
Edmunds, who is entering the final year of his contract, said he’s not thinking about a looming extension and reiterated that he’s glad to have an opportunity to start.
“The contract year is the contract year,” Edmonds said. “To me, it’s all about the opportunity. I finally have the opportunity.”
Seahawks
Seahawks QB Pete Carroll called the situation with Russell Wilson “old news” and his previous frustrations with the organization became “magnified” at the time.
“It seems like really old news to talk about this because it’s been such a long time,” Carroll said, via the Rich Eisen Show. “The little bit he said carried so much air time that it became bigger than life. Throughout the whole process, Russell, we’ve always been connected, we’ve always been talking, we’ve never not been in communication, and we weren’t at all in this time either. A couple things that came out got magnified and the questions came out, and there was a couple things, he was frustrated when he was talking, just like any of us can sometimes emphasize something that’s on the top of our mind, and it can be played differently than it really played itself out.”
Carroll added that Wilson has had a “really good offseason” with the organization and that the two parties began focusing on “making sure that we were on the same page.”
“We’ve had a really good offseason of working, and there was an ongoing media discussion that I did not take part in, John (Schneider) and I did not, we refused to be party to that, and Russ did what he could once he saw it happening, to stay as quiet as he could because it was going to play and have a life of its own anyway. What it amounted to was I think a refocusing, making sure that we were on the same page, making sure that we were clear so that we could withstand any of the scrutiny that would come towards us, and we did that.”
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