NFC Notes: Calais Campbell, Bryce Young, Falcons, Panthers, Saints

Falcons

Falcons DL Calais Campbell hasn’t practiced during camp but it’s all a part of the plan for the 16-year veteran. 

“I feel like I’m in a really good place getting ready for the season,” Campbell said via the Athletic’s Josh Kendall. “The biggest thing about training camp is preparing yourself for Week 1. My trajectory is different than the average player. Coach (Smith) did a good job of letting me heal through the stuff I had going on. We had a good conversation about exactly what I need to do to get ready for Week 1, but I promise you I’m going to be ready for Week 1 and be dominating.”

Campbell added he’s focusing on being at his best later in the season, as at this point in his career he has nothing really to prove in training camp. 

“I don’t really need all the training camp reps to be ready with my experience,” he said. “It’s about trying to be as efficient as possible. Got a really good coach who pays attention to the science, and he’s trying to put us in a position to be dominant. He understands how hard to push me. The biggest thing is communication. We have really good communication and we’re on the same page.”

Panthers

Panthers QB coach Josh McCown says that first-overall pick QB Bryce Young is everything that the team envisioned he would be when they selected him in the draft. 

“I try to pick his brain as much as I can,” Young said of McCown, via The Athletic. “Every time we’re going through install, he’s always (like): ‘Oh yeah, I remember we did this back in 2010 against this team. It was third down, (and) I did this.’ (He’s) not just been able to talk about what’s going on and illustrating and talking about X’s and O’s, but has lived it.”

“He’s everything we thought he would be in the draft process,” McCown said of Young. “That’s why we drafted him No. 1. From a character standpoint and work-ethic standpoint, he puts the time in and has a strong desire to maximize his potential every day. We felt that in the draft process and (after) three, four months now of working with him, we’ve seen that every day. It’s great because you believe that some of those other pitfalls that I’ve seen before, you can avoid some of those because the character is right and the work ethic is right. We’ve gotta dig in as a team and do our best to surround him with the right people and help him. Outside looking in, you think we’ll throw a top pick in there and he’ll solve everything. That’s certainly the hope because everybody wants to go get a quarterback. But we want him to come to work, get the most out of himself every day and he does that.”

McCown was also asked if too much has been made about Young’s size, not just his height, but his combine weight of 204 pounds.

“We don’t feel it out here,” McCown replied. “He makes throws. He throws the ball over the middle. We don’t feel like the ball’s getting tipped any different than any other quarterback. When we looked at the tape, (his size) was obviously a part of it. But it’s more a part of it because of the nature of our league. It just goes a certain way. That’s kind of the way of the world. We fall into certain stereotypes and we just say, this is what this should look like. When you do that, you cut yourself off of some great possibilities. So we wanted to keep an open mind. As we go through this thing, I think we’re gonna feel good about the fact that we kept an open mind and we didn’t say, OK, well, he doesn’t meet this so he’s out.”

Saints

Saints GM Mickey Loomis said WR Michael Thomas is doing everything he can in order to get himself back to where he was as a player.

“I don’t look at it any different than you look at any player,” Loomis said, via PFT. “Look, injuries happen. This isn’t like the same thing that’s happened to Mike three years in a row. He’s had some different things happen. What I don’t question is his desire, his work ethic, the things that he’s done 10 miles overboard in getting himself ready. And no one wants it more than him.”

• Saints OL Landon Young suffered an MCL sprain. (Nick Underhill)