NFC Notes: Alvin Kamara, Bryce Young, Buccaneers, Panthers, Saints

Buccaneers

Buccaneers QB Kyle Trask is getting more confident within the team’s offense entering his third year in the NFL.

“I think just with the reps you get, your brain is getting more wired every single day with the concepts and where your eyes need to be,” Trask said, via PFT. “The progress is coming along little by little every day and I’m feeling very comfortable grabbing the gist of the offense. It’s been such a huge leap for me, in my opinion, just to get all of the concepts down and playing with more confidence. Mistakes are going to happen – that’s part of football. It’s our job as quarterbacks to limit those mistakes and give our team the best chance to win in the end.”

Trask added that the dynamic in the quarterback room is great and the ability to have different guys with different backgrounds and skill sets benefits the group as a whole.

“I think the whole quarterback room has built a great relationship,” Trask said. “Just like I was talking about earlier with transparency of communication — it’s also huge in a quarterback room. You want to be able to lean on each other and bounce ideas off of each other. That’s the key to a great quarterback room is having a lot of different ideas whether from past offenses or different looks that you’ve had in the past. I think that our quarterback room is building a great relationship right now.”

Panthers

Panthers CB Donte Jackson said they’ve all been encouraged by first-round QB Bryce Young following the conclusion of the minicamp. 

“We knew we were going to get a dawg,” Jackson said, via David Newton of ESPN. “We’re definitely happy with the dawg we got. He’s different.”

Young said Carolina has a culture of accountability. 

“It’s great to be in a locker room where, first and foremost, we hold ourselves accountable,” Young said. “We look in the mirror first. Because of that, us all kind of having that mentality, we can lean on each other to pick each other up.”

Panthers OLB Brian Burns reiterated that Young has already made a big impact in their locker room. 

“It’s hard not to like that kid,” Burns said. “He’s put quite a stamp on the locker room. He walks around with this kind of — excuse my language — ‘humble but I know I’m the s—‘ type of swag. You know? He’s got it, but he’s humble with it.”

Saints

Saints’ new QB Derek Carr had high praise of RB Alvin Kamara and has been even more impressed by the running back since meeting him. 

“I just absolutely love him. Great teammate, great energy about him, and very explosive. He’s so smooth on film, you really just don’t know how good he is — obviously you see the film, but then when you get in person, he ran a couple routes where I looked at Jake [Heaner] today like, ‘That’s not normal,’” Carr said, via ProfootballTalk. “Being around him just for a little bit in the building, people don’t know how smart he is at football, he knows what to see, he knows what route to run, he knows how to use his help, that combined with his athletic ability, you see why he’s had that production.”

• Saints HC Dennis Allen said they have contingency plans in place regarding Kamara’s legal situation but they aren’t focusing on things they can’t control: “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. We’ve got thoughts and ideas in terms of how we react to whatever we’re dealing with. We’re not going to worry too much about things we don’t control… We’re going to adjust however need be,” via Doug Mouton. 
• Allen hasn’t noticed that Kamara is affected by the situation: “No, I really haven’t. I think one of the great things about professional athletes is when they step in between the white lines, they are able to compartmentalize and focus on the task at hand. Every time he comes out here, to practice or play in a game, he’s focused on the task at hand.” 
• Saints RB coach Joel Thomas expects third-round RB Kendre Miller (knee) to be ready for training camp: “Obviously we’ve got to manage his load correctly and make sure he can handle the rigors of what we’re demanding from practice and go from there,” via Katherine Terrell.