NFC Notes: Buccaneers, Falcons, Saints

Buccaneers

• Pitt WR Jared Wayne was invited to the Bucs’ local prospect day. (Aaron Wilson)
• Florida A&M WR Xavier Smith was also invited to Tampa Bay’s local pro day. (Tony Pauline)

Falcons

Falcons HC Arthur Smith recently found himself fielding questions about why the team would move forward with QB Desmond Ridder instead of pursuing a trade for QB Lamar Jackson. 

“He won a lot of games in college and helped Luke Fickell at Cincinnati really change the whole culture of that program,” Smith told Rich Eisen. “And I certainly think that experience, you start that many games coming in helps, we certainly saw that early on as we threw everything we could at him. And he was impressive, and we felt that he was ready to take over at that time of the season, and I thought he did a nice job. Cool, collected under pressure. At the end of the day, you’ve got to be able to operate on critical third downs, fourth downs, two-minute situations, and I thought he’d done that pretty well. And certainly there’s a lot of things we all can continue to improve, but we’ve got a lot of faith in him.”

Smith made it clear that the team has no interest in trading for Jackson. 

“Look at the people that are willing to make trades, and they happen quick now, and I think any time any player, it’s our job to understand the markets that’s going on, and who’s available, who’s not, do they fit, and there’s a lot of things that go into it,” Smith said. “With those transactions, where you’re willing to spend in the salary cap, and there’s great debates, certainly makes your shows more interesting, and that’s great for the league, but at the end of the day you’ve got to do what you think is best for your team and what you’re building and how it fits into that puzzle. And like I said there’s a lot of great players and they become available it seems now more than ever. I mean look at the deals that were done a year ago and you’ve got a quarterback that’s on a huge deal a year ago that’s available now. And that was unheard of 20 years ago.”

Saints

• The Saints will host TCU RB Kendre Miller for a top-30 visit. (Aaron Wilson)