NFC Notes: Cardinals, 49ers, Rams, Seahawks

Cardinals

• Per Darren Urban of the team website, Cardinals QB Kyler Murray was at practice on Wednesday. 
• Murray says he plans to play in Week 17 against the Rams in a key game for Arizona with a playoff berth on the line: “There’s no holding back… my leg… I’ll be fine.” (Omar Ruiz)

49ers

Once again, the long-term status of 49ers QB Jimmy Garoppolo is the topic du jour in San Francisco heading into the offseason. And once again, star TE George Kittle is coming to his quarterback’s defense. 

“At the end of the day, I play tight end here and I just work here, but I think that I do have a little bit of a voice and I’ve said multiple times that I just love playing football with Jimmy G,” Kittle said on KNBR via NBC Sports’ Josh Schrock. “Our team is different when he’s out there, and that’s why it’s fun to play football with him because I think we both have big-time changes to our huddles when we’re both on the football field.

“I can’t say enough about the leader Jimmy G is, and how his presence changes how the team is feeling, how the team is going about its business and how the team practices every day. Jimmy G is our quarterback, and moving forward he’s our quarterback, and that’s all I really have to say about it. I’m going to go with the guy that took us to a Super Bowl and played at a high level the entire year. That’s my case for Jimmy G, and I think it’s a decent one.”

• 49ers HC Kyle Shanahan said they haven’t discussed RT Mike McGlinchey‘s fifth-year option which will be due this coming May but he doesn’t anticipate any issues there: “Don’t worry, Mike, you’ll be all right, man.” (Matt Maiocco)
• The 49ers are bringing in WR Austin Proehl for a workout this week. (Aaron Wilson)

Rams

A couple of weeks ago, the Rams were 9-4 and sitting pretty in playoff positioning, with a chance to win the NFC West and an outside chance at stealing the No. 1 seed. But following back to back losses to the Jets (!) and Seahawks, the Rams are now on the verge of missing the playoffs if they lose Sunday against the Cardinals and a couple other games break against them. To make matters worse, they’ll be shorthanded without starting QB Jared Goff and others. 

“I think it’s important to take into perspective, a week and a day ago we were feeling pretty good, we were at 9-4. A couple of games later, because of a couple of different things that could go either way, you’re sitting at 9-6,” Rams HC Sean McVay said via Kevin Modesti of the Orange County Register. “We’ll never make any excuses for how we got here, but I also think you have to be careful to let the outside-in narrative shape the way that our guys are feeling about their ability to go perform. Look no further than some of the resilient responses from some of the other teams. You look at what the Steelers did on a short week against an excellent Indianapolis Colts team. They start out at 11-0, they have a couple of tough games that aren’t really characteristic of what they had been. They found a way to respond.”

• The Athletic’s Jourdan Rodrigue thinks Rams ST coordinator John Bonamego could be on the hot seat. It’s his first year as the Rams special teams coach but that phase of the game has been inconsistent for Los Angeles. 
• Rams WR Cooper Kupp will also miss this week’s game after testing positive for COVID-19. (Lindsey Thiry)

Seahawks

• Per Pro Football Talk’s Curtis Crabtree, Seahawks HC Pete Carroll said they’d love to have RB Chris Carson back but understands he’s got a chance to test his market in free agency: “He’s been a terrific part of our team and hopefully we can keep that going. … I can’t imagine anything else happening but from the business side of it, he’s got a chance to just see what’s going on.”
• Carroll doesn’t expect WR Phillip Dorsett to return this season. (Michael-Shawn Dugar)
• Seahawks S Marquise Blair appears to be doing well in his rehab to come back in 2021, per Carroll: “He’s doing great on his recovery and there’s not going to be any problems with him getting back as far as what everything I’ve heard.” (Crabtree)