NFC Notes: Buccaneers, Giants, Vikings

Buccaneers

Buccaneers OL coach Georgia Warhop tells Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times that they’re looking to change their mentality when it comes to running the ball after a disappointing 2017 season.

“Last year, to be honest, I was disappointed in how we ran the ball,” Warhop said. “I was disappointed in our mental approach to how we were going to run the ball. I thought, really, the last eight games when we started with the Jets, we started to turn the corner in terms of mentality and how we wanted to go about our business. And I thought that helped us. So we just had to shake it up a bit. It doesn’t matter who plays. It really doesn’t matter who is playing. It’s just a matter of how you want to go about playing.”

According to Warhop, this is something they took into account when it came to the kind of players they brought in this offseason.

“Listen, you can slice that any way you want about … guys who chew glass and all that,” Warhop said. “It comes down to this: you’re either going to be competitive or you’re not. That’s it. There’s all kinds of guys, whether you playing O-line, D-line, receiver, running back that play the game. It comes down to, ‘Am I going to be a competitive guy or not?’ If you’re not going to be competitive, you’re not going to survive. …

“So when we’re adding guys, we’re using the same criteria. One, can they play? Are they better than the guys we have? No. 2, can they compete with the guys we have? No. 3, they have the characteristics we’re looking for. The guys we added are checking most of those boxes.”

Giants

• Ryan Dunleavy of NJ.com takes a look at seven position battles worth watching for the Giants at the start of OTAs this week.
• Dunleavy’s position battles list includes backup QB, right tackle, No. 3 and No. 4 receiver, starting outside linebacker, starting free safety, both defensive ends, starting right guard/backup guard.

Vikings

Chip Scoggins of the Star-Tribune writes that Vikings VP of football operations Rob Brzezinski will have his work cut out for him to get LB Anthony Barr, DE Danielle Hunter and WR Stefon Diggs all under contract long-term.

“I would be lying if I said you don’t feel some pressure,” Brzezinski said, “because you want to be able to keep this team together and keep all your best players.”

The Vikings have been planning for three years now to address these players and they even deviated from their normal approach and negotiated extensions for Everson Griffen and Linval Joseph, even though they had multiple years on their contracts, so that they were better positioned to address extension candidates later on.

“Can you imagine those guys also being up at this time as well?” Vikings GM Rick Spielman said.

While it’s clearly a tough situation to be in, Brzezinski says: “It’s a good problem to have.”