Buccaneers
Buccaneers QB Tom Brady said that he is using the media questions about his offensive line to motivate the young, new starters in Tampa.
“I’ve shown it to them and used it as motivation,” Brady said, via NFL.com. “Every time someone says they suck, and they can’t do anything, I’ve tried to show it to them. And say, ‘this is what they’re all saying about you. What do you guys think? What are you going to do about it?’ And make sure they know what everyone’s saying. I think that’s important. I think I’ve always used little different spites as motivation for me. And I’m a really motivated person. But it always helps when someone says something that’s not flattering.”
Brady is aware that there will be issues as the line tries to find their continuity to start the season.
“It’s gonna be a challenge,” Brady said. “I’d definitely say that’s every team’s challenge at different times in the year. You deal with injuries early, you deal with injuries late, you deal with them all year. We lost Alex Cappa to the Bengals. We lost Ali Marpet, who was a great player, to retirement. And then Ryan got hurt in training camp. So we got Shaq Mason, who I love to death. I’ve played with him for a long time. I know what he’s all about. Robert Hainsey from Notre Dame earned the respect of his teammates with his work ethic and his showing up every day last year even though he wasn’t playing to be prepared, and he’s gonna step in and try to do a great job. And we got a left guard that’s battling every day. Luke (Goedeke) has done a great job for us in training camp. We drafted him to come in here and play and we’ll see if he can get in there and be prepared to go do a great job. But it’s gonna be like all players, you know, no one makes every, I certainly don’t make every throw great. I don’t make every read great. I’ve thrown plenty of interceptions. You can’t expect these young tight ends or young running backs or young linemen to get everything right because they’re going up against a lot of great players and those great players are gonna challenge them.”
“I’m expecting great things from our whole unit,” Brady added. “I think they’ve learned over the years. I think we’re more on the same page every year. And I expect them to go out there and they got a lot of pride, they wanna work hard, they wanna do the right thing. They’re well-coached. We’re gonna be in a position with the O-line where I hope they take to heart all the things that people have said about them, which is not always the most flattering thing. But they gotta go out there and they gotta, again, like all of us we gotta go out there and earn it and prove people right or prove them wrong.”
Falcons
- Falcons OL Drew Dalman isn’t too worried about the outcome of the competition at center with OL Matt Hennessy: “I mean, we’re still just going. My whole attitude is that I’m not going to waste any time thinking about it and I’m just going to worry about getting better and preparing. “I haven’t put a ton of thought into how it’s affecting me.” (Michael Rothstein)
- The Falcons listed Dalman as their starter on their first depth chart of the year. (Rothstein)
Panthers
Panthers HC Matt Rhule said RB Christian McCaffrey is ready for a full workload this year.
“I don’t think anything we’ve done isn’t smart,” Rhule said, via Panthers Wire. “He’s a tailback in the National Football League. Right? He had a ton of usage the two years before I got here. The propensity, after that much usage, of being injured is really, really high. The benefit is he’s had two years now to kind of reclaim his body. He’s in the best shape of his life.”
Rhule doesn’t plan on limiting McCaffrey this year.
“We’re gonna play him,” he added. “He’s a great player. We’re gonna play him. We also have other backs we like. So as the rosters develop, hopefully some of the load can be dispersed because we want it to be dispersed. But we’re gonna play Christian ’cause we think he can impact the game.”
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