NFC Notes: Alvin Kamara, Arthur Smith, Falcons, Panthers, Saints

Falcons

Falcons HC Arthur Smith feels he should have done a better job game planning for the offense against the Jaguars and spoke about QB Desmond Ridder‘s interceptions, as Ridder told reporters he did a poor job turning over the ball.

“We have to do a better job, and it starts with me jump-starting the offense early,” Smith said, via the team website. “We put ourselves in the hole again, and we can’t turn the ball over. … You’re going to make life harder on yourself.”

“Those are tough lessons for a young quarterback,” Smith added on Ridder. “(You) find out about yourself when you go back out there. In the second half, he was able to push the ball down the field a little bit. I thought he operated cleaner in the pocket and we were able to get some looks, and he was not risk-averse after that, which a lot of times that happens.”

Panthers

Panthers DC Ejiro Evero addressed the reason why rookie OLB D.J. Johnson has yet to be activated for an NFL game despite being drafted in the third round.

“Well, ya know, we’ve been really blessed,” Evero said, via Panthers Wire. “We have a lot of good players at that position. Justin [Houston], Brian [Burns], Yetur’s [Gross-Matos] been playin’ really well, [Amaré] Barno. He’s doin’ a great job, I would say that. We like where he is, we like his progress that he’s makin’ and it’s just a matter of him findin’ those opportunities. But there’s always those fluctuations and it’s week by week and we’ll see what happens.”

• Panthers LB Brian Burns commented on the team starting the season with an 0-4 record: “Honestly, you can’t get too down on yourself. [But] at a certain point and time you gotta man up. That time is well overdue. So I don’t have much to say. I want actions to speak.’’ (David Newton)

Saints

Saints RB Alvin Kamara told the media that is time for the team to have some difficult conversations about their stalling offense. 

“It’s been two years since we had that offense that was rolling. Now we’re kind of in this rut,” Kamara said, via John Sigler of USAToday.com. “It is what it is right now. What you see. Like I said, we’ve got to have some conversations about something. Because I don’t like losing.”

• Saints RB Tony Jones was fined $5,222 for unnecessary roughness stemming from Week 3.