NFC Notes: Buccaneers, Falcons, Panthers, Saints

Buccaneers

Bucs HC Todd Bowles isn’t thinking about the possibility that QB Tom Brady could be retiring after the season and has his focused set on the team’s game against Dallas.

“I didn’t think about that in 2020, I didn’t think about that in 2021 and I’m not thinking about that this year,” Bowles said, via PFT. “I’m trying to stay focused – we’re trying to stay focused and make the main thing the main thing. Right now, we have a really good football team that we’ve got to play Monday night that we’ve got to get ready for. We’ll worry about that when we need to worry about that – right now, we need to worry about the Cowboys. It’s a good football team that we’re about to play [so] we’ve got to get ready.”

• Field Yates notes that the Buccaneers will roll over $2,704,090 in unused 2022 cap space to next season. 

Falcons

It’s shaping up to be a very different offseason for the Falcons in 2023. Unlike the past few seasons, Atlanta actually has a bounty of cap space to spend, the second-most of any team by some projections. That’s a lot of dough to make a splash with but GM Terry Fontenot pumped the brakes, cautioning that philosophically he and HC Arthur Smith have some concerns about spending wildly in free agency. 

“This is going to be a different offseason than we have had in previous years, but we’re still going to be smart and have discipline in everything we do,” Fontenot said via the Athletic’s Josh Kendall. “We have a very strong culture. We have to make sure we always prioritize that.”

“It’s always going to start with the makeup, personal character, football character. What’s their fit? What’s our trust level of them inside the building and outside the building? We have to make sure we are not going to bring players in who are going to take away from that,” he added.

• Field Yates notes that the Falcons will roll over $5,011,209 in unused 2022 cap space to next season.

Panthers

• Field Yates notes that the Panthers will roll over $10,752,279 in unused 2022 cap space to next season. 

Saints

Saints GM Mickey Loomis said the team plans to take some time before beginning to evaluate any potential changes this offseason. Loomis said the team will take a step back before beginning any offseason plans.

“Yeah I think, well, first of all,” Loomis said, via Saints Wire. “I would like to take a little bit of a break here and let the emotions of this season dissipate, so we can view it from a lens that is a step back. We’ll kind of step back this week and then get into those evaluations that you’re talking about next week, and eventually formulate our plans for this offseason.”

Loomis added that Saints owner Gayle Benson will continue to evaluate his performance as she has all season, when asked who will hold him accountable.

“I don’t know, Mrs. Benson, I guess?” Loomis added. “That’s happening constantly, during the course of the year I’m visiting with Mrs. Benson daily, so that really happens every day during the entire season, the entire year, really. It’s not a formal sit-down-and-give-you-a-review that you might have with some other companies, so it’s really a little different.”