NFC Notes: Buccaneers, Panthers, Christian McCaffrey, Saints

Buccaneers

Bucs OL Robert Hainsey said QB Tom Brady‘s fiery sideline tirade was exactly what the offensive line wants as a unit.

“Everyone can call it what they want, but I want nothing else from a quarterback than that — than the guy who’s wanting to tell us what we need to do and step up,” Hainsey said, via ESPN. “If he was just sitting over there and not get us going and not try to help us — he wouldn’t be who he is today. “I love that from him. I know we all love that from him. It might look weird on TV, but that’s football. That’s what you want from great teammates and great leaders, and he’s the best there is.”

Hainsey is trying to pick up everything he can from Brady in order to improve his game.

“I love learning from him,” Hainsey said. “He’s got so much knowledge of the game so any time I can pick his brain and kind of figure out what he wants and how he sees things, it’s a really cool opportunity for me. I enjoy that a lot.”

Bucs HC Todd Bowles does not plan on adjusting the teams starting five up front and said that it’s on the coaching staff to get the players to improve.

“Well, we’ve got the guys we’ve got and we’re happy with them. We just have to be better play-wise,” Bowles said. “We’ve got to execute better. It’s always a guy here and a guy there — whether it’s Luke or somebody else on the offensive line, or a ball outside and we miss a block here and there, or somebody swims us and gets by and makes it look worse than it is. It’s a different guy every play. We’ve got to be more detailed as coaches. We’ve got to be better execution-wise as players. It’s a group effort. If we’ve got to change some things from an offensive scheme standpoint, we’ll do that. If we have to do something from a player standpoint, we’ll take a look at that, as well. We’re trying to find the best solution, how we can get better in those areas.”

Panthers

Panthers GM Scott Fitterer commented on the trade of RB Christian McCaffrey and insisted the team is not tanking. Meanwhile, QB Sam Darnold was nearly brought to tears having lost his best friend on the team to the trade.

“We had to figure what’s best for the organization,” Fitterer said, via David Newton of ESPN. “Our focus is still going out and competing every weekend. We expect to win. It provides a lot of options with that amount of picks. If we don’t have to move up, it gives a lot of shots on players.”

“We have a really good, young core,” Fitterer added. “Yeah, Christian is a dynamic player, one of the best players in the NFL. We’re not going to hide that. But what this does do is allow us to grow moving forward.”

“We had three hard offers and then a couple of test-the-water type offers where they threw their hat in the ring,” Fitterer said of the market for McCaffrey. “We like the young core of our team. We’re building. This isn’t a situation where we’re trying to sell. We’re trying to add players to this really good mix. These are guys we win with moving forward.”

“There’s no such thing as tanking when it comes to myself or the men in that locker room,” Wilks said.

“I had my initial thoughts, was pretty bummed out,” Darnold said of losing McCaffrey. “But at the end of the day, it’s part of the business. He’s going to go out there and do a great job and have the effect in San Francisco that he had in Charlotte, which was incredible. For us, we’re worried about this next game. For us, it’s about taking it one game at a time. If we get focused on other things outside of what we can do in that locker room, it doesn’t do us any good. We’re still worried about going out there and winning football games. We’re not worried about any of the narratives going on outside of the locker room.”

“Our record is what it is, and whatever moves the front office wants to make at this point in the season, obviously they’re going to make for the better of this team and this locker room,” Darnold continued. “We have full faith in that in that locker room…I’ll keep most of it between us. For the most part, I just said, ‘Gonna miss you. Gonna miss you, man! Go play football and play at a high level.'”

Saints

Saints HC Dennis Allen acknowledges that there is no magic formula for the team to put together instant wins, especially in the NFL.

“There’s not this magic pill, this magic formula,” Allen said, via NewOrleansSaints.com. “I think we all live in the microwave society and we want to see things change right away. We’re working as hard as we can to get it fixed, but yet, I think the process is, you’ve got to continue to work on it, continue to work it, continue to work on it. And as you do, the results may not be immediate but eventually, they’ll come.”