NFC Notes: Buccaneers, Calvin Ridley, Falcons, Panthers, Saints

Buccaneers

Bucs GM Jason Licht is preparing for life after QB Tom Brady as the team has to “pay the bills” on the veterans brought in to surround Brady with talent. Licht said the team’s ultimate goal is still to win the Super Bowl, but they’re going to have a greater eye on the future.

“It’s a challenge, but it’s not a stressful challenge because we knew this was coming,” Licht said, via the Tampa Bay Times. “This was part of the plan going back to 2020 when we signed Tom, that at some point we’re going to have to pay our bills. But we want to make sure that we were drafting well along the way and having some pieces on the roster along the way that we can still compete. We definitely feel we can this year, and we still don’t want to do anything to interrupt our long-term goal, which is also winning the Super Bowl. If it happens this year, that’s great. But we’re restocking for the future as well.”

While the team will undoubtedly look to get younger, Licht said that he does want to keep veteran LB Lavonte David in Tampa Bay.

“It takes two to agree to it, and we’ll see how that unfolds,” Licht said. ”We’d love to see Lavonte continue to play as a Buc.”

The team will prioritize adding speed and youth to their roster moving forward.

“We do need to get faster,” Licht said. “We need to get younger.”

The team will attempt to shake things up on their roster, most notably a potential move for RT Tristan Wirfs to left tackle and DB Antoine Winfield, Jr. back to full-time free safety.

“I don’t want to move him around as much this coming season than I have (in 2022). I’ll try to leave him at one spot as best as I can,” Bucs HC Todd Bowles said, regarding Winfield. “I think he’ll master that spot and get even better for us.”

• NFL Media’s Tom Pelissero expects Buccaneers CB Jamel Dean to have a strong market as a free agent and sign a deal that potentially is in the range of $16 million a year. 

Falcons

• Jaguars WR Calvin Ridley wrote a personal essay in the Player’s Tribune explaining more about how and why his time with the Falcons. He says he played through the 2020 season, where he had nearly 1,400 yards receiving and nine touchdowns, with a broken foot that was misdiagnosed by a trainer. 
• In 2021, Ridley says he felt a lot of pressure to be the team’s No. 1 receiver and even though he had surgery to fix his foot he still needed painkillers to practice. That contributed to worsening anxiety and depression. 
• Early in the season, Ridley’s house was broken into and robbed, which triggered his anxiety and depression even more. He was not able to travel with the team to London and this is when he had to step away from the team. 
• Ridley didn’t want to badmouth anyone from the Falcons but he admitted he thought the team could have handled things better: “I know they got a lot of pressure to win, and they got their own job to do. But I just felt like some people in the building were supportive, and other people were looking at me like, ‘You good, bro.'” 
• He owned up completely to his mistake with gambling that resulted in a year-long suspension: “I just f***ed up. Period. In a dark moment, I made a stupid mistake. I wasn’t trying to cheat the game. That’s the thing I want to make clear. At the time, I had been completely away from the team for about a month. I was still just so depressed and angry, and the days were so long. I was looking for anything to take my mind off of things and make the day go by faster.”
• NFL Media’s Tom Pelissero notes the going rate for right tackles, good ones at least, is $15-$19 million a year, and Falcons RT Kaleb McGary has a chance to come in near the high end of that in free agency. 
• Falcons OLB Lorenzo Carter‘s two-year, $9 million contract includes $5.25 million guaranteed, $2 million of which is from a signing bonus and the $3.25 million from his 2023 base salary. (OverTheCap)
• Carter’s 2024 base salary is $3.75 million and he can earn an additional $1 million in incentives. 

Panthers

According to NFL Media’s Cameron Wolfe, the Panthers will make a bold move up to get a quarterback in the draft if they are enamored with one.

Wolfe adds the quarterback in question could be Anthony Richardson of Florida, who had a very strong performance at the combine.

“Well, the Panthers are certainly going to go get a quarterback,” Wolfe said. “And the Derek Carr situation is something we’ve been tracking for weeks now. They [were] gonna talk to him again on Monday over the phone. But what I hear here is their preference is to find their franchise quarterback long-term via the draft. So they’re doing a lot of homework on these quarterback prospects here. And the one thing to watch as we look at teams here who are trying to trade up, Carolina should be high on that list. I’ve been told they are gonna be aggressive if they fall in love with their guy.”

“One guy to keep an eye on is Anthony Richardson,” Wolfe added. “He’s met with all the quarterback teams here. Carolina’s meeting apparently went great. They loved his work on the board. He’s a guy that, obviously, has some development to do. But he said earlier today, he’s like Cam Jackson —Cam Newton and Lamar Jackson together. And you have a staff like Carolina has with Thomas Brown, Frank Reich, and some of the offensive coaching staffs there. They are a type of group that wants to develop their quarterback.”

• However, the Athletic’s Joe Person says while Carolina is impressed with Richardson’s talent, the sense is he might be too risky to trade up for. The team could ultimately look to trade with Arizona for one of QB Bryce Young, QB C.J. Stroud or QB Will Levis. 
• Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer notes that while he doesn’t know which prospect the Panthers love yet, he’s convinced they’re going to move up and that the No. 3 pick might be a more realistic landing spot than No. 1. 
• Jason La Canfora of the Washington Post mentions the Panthers are one of the teams at least keeping track of 49ers QB Jimmy Garoppolo‘s market before free agency.

Saints

• NFL Media’s Mike Garafolo reports new Saints QB Derek Carr received a no-trade clause from the team as part of his new contract.
• Auburn RB Tank Bigsby had a formal Combine interview with the Saints. (Tom Downey)
• Penn State WR Parker Washington had a formal Combine interview with the Saints. (Tom Downey)
• The Saints were one of the teams to have a formal meeting with Georgia TE Darnell Washington. (MJ Hurley)
• Justin Melo reports South Dakota State TE Tucker Kraft had formal meetings with 15 teams at the combine including the Saints.  
• Saints DE Tanoh Kpassagnon‘s two-year, $5 million deal includes a $1.4 million signing bonus and base salaries of $1.1 million and $2 million. His 2023 base salary is guaranteed. (Over The Cap)
• There is a $500,000 roster bonus due on the fifth day of the 2024 league year, as well as three void years for cap purposes. 
• The Saints have hired Adam Gristick as a defensive assistant. (Katherine Terrell)