NFC Notes: Buccaneers, Falcons, Panthers

Buccaneers

Buccaneers QB Tom Brady spoke to the media about only scoring three points against the Panthers on Sunday.

“Any time you score three points, that kind of sums it up,” Brady said, via Pro Football Talk. “Any time you lose one game it’s no fun. If you lose two, it’s worse. No one feels good about what we’re at, no one feels good about how we played or what we’re doing, so we’re all in it together, we got to pull ourselves out of it. I think we all just have to do our job better.”

• Buccaneers HC Todd Bowles said second-round LG Luke Goedeke will start Thursday against the Ravens but OL Nick Leverett will play as well. (Jenna Laine)
• Buccaneers WR Russell Gage is undergoing an MRI on his hamstring, while S Antoine Winfield Jr. has a concussion and will likely miss Thursday’s game. (Laine)

Falcons

• Falcons HC Arthur Smith on if he considered replacing QB Marcus Mariota with third-round QB Desmond Ridder: “If we had gotten a stop late, probably would have put him in to hand off the ball.” (Josh Kendall)
• Falcons S Jaylinn Hawkins will be out next week with a concussion, with CB AJ Terrell listed as week-to-week and CB Dee Alford as day-to-day. (Michael Rothstein)

Panthers

Panthers interim HC Steve Wilks had high praise for QB P.J. Walker after his performance against the Buccaneers and says it will be hard to not start him once again in Week 8.

“P.J. had an outstanding performance,” Wilks said, via Panthers.com. “When you look at what he did today — still have to evaluate the tape — it’s going to be hard to try to pull him out.”

“I just went out there and played my game, executed what we called, moved the ball down the field efficiently,” Walker said of starting another week. “That’s not my call. My call is to get ready to work Monday. Whether it’s to start, back up, whatever it is, I’ll be ready.”

• Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer says the Panthers believe internally they’re a good quarterback away from being really good and the rest of the roster isn’t in bad shape, which was validated by their Week 7 win over the Buccaneers and the reason why they’re not holding a fire sale at the trade deadline. 
• Breer mentions the Broncos and the Eagles called about RB Christian McCaffrey but were only offering a third or fourth-round pick and weren’t legitimately in the running. 
• Breer says the 49ers’ offer of second, third and fourth-round picks in 2023 and a fifth in 2024 came out slightly ahead in the Panthers’ estimation of the Rams’ offer of second and third-round picks in 2023, fourth and fifth-round picks in 2024 and RB Cam Akers.