NFC Notes: Buccaneers, Eagles, Falcons

Buccaneers

Greg Auman of the Tampa Bay Times writes that the Buccaneers paid out more than $250,000 in guaranteed money to undrafted rookies this year.

The full breakdown of bonuses paid out to undrafted rookies consists of:

• S Godwin Igwebuike: $105,000
• QB Austin Allen: $50,000
• OL Cole Boozer: $45,000
• RB Shaun Wilson: $20,000
• TE Donnie Ernsberger: $15,000
• DE Demone Harris: $5,000
• K Trevor Moore: $4,000
• DE Evan Perrizo: $3,000

Eagles

Jimmy Kempski of PhillyVoice.com put together an early 53-man roster projection for the Eagles.

• Interestingly enough, Kempsky sees the Eagles keeping four running backs including Jay Ajayi, Corey Clement, Darren Sproles, and Matt Jones, which leaves Donnel Pumphrey, Wendell Smallwood, and undrafted rookie Josh Adams on the outside looking in.
• At receiver, Kempski projects Philadelphia to keep five not including veteran Markus Wheaton.
• Kempski assumes that DT Timmy Jernigan will open the season on the non-football injury, which would give the Eagles an extra roster spot to work with.
• Kempski has the Eagles keeping five cornerbacks and five safeties, but says that De’Vante Bausby could secure a job, depending on whether they sustain any injuries at cornerback.
• Eagles HC Doug Pederson left the door open to re-signing veteran S Corey Graham at some point, and Kempski suspects they will sign him to a contract around mid-to-late June.

Falcons

The Falcons plan to move Vic Beasley back to defensive end after he spent some time playing linebacker for them last year.

Falcons DL coach Bryant Young explained that part of this is to ensure that Beasley is fresher when it comes to rushing the passer.

“It frees him up to play more first- or second-down nickel and be available in that way and be fresher during the course of the game,” Young said, via the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Not that he couldn’t handle it because I thought he did a good job of handling the [strongside linebacker position] and playing defensive end. Just having him available to play more reps at defensive end will be good for us.”

Beasley says that playing linebacker obviously impacted his production in terms of sacks.

“I wasn’t rushing as much as I normally would,” Beasley said. “There were less opportunities, but it was for the betterment of the team and what the team needed most at that moment. I was fine with that.”

Beasley makes it clear that his goal for this season is to simply be a very disruptive player for the Falcons’ defense.

“Get more sacks,” Beasley said. “Everybody likes getting more sacks, right? Make more plays in the backfield. Getting deflections, that’s what it boils down to, being a relentless defense and a strong front four.”