Cardinals
- Tony Pauline of ProFootballNetwork.com, citing sources, reports that the Cardinals will not select Alabama RB Najee Harris at No. 16 overall and instead “covet” Alabama CB Patrick Surtain, South Carolina CB Jaycee Horn, and Alabama WR Jaylen Waddle.
- Should Surtain, Horn, and Waddle be unavailable to Arizona at No. 16, Pauline reports that the Cardinals could select Tulsa LB Zaven Collins.
- Matt Miller, citing league circles, reports that the Cardinals have come up as a team looking to trade up for a wide receiver.
- Although Miller believes this could “100% be a smokescreen,” many teams have indicated that Arizona is looking for a receiver.
49ers
- Regarding the 49ers’ potential interest in Alabama QB Mac Jones after Ohio State’s Justin Fields‘ second pro day, Ian Rapoport mentioned that on the Rich Eisen Show that the 49ers had a “leader in the clubhouse” and were looking to confirm that coming out of Fields’ pro day.
- Rapoport believes Jones will be drafted by San Francisco at No. 3 despite several analysts grading Fields ahead of the Alabama quarterback.
- According to Rapoport, Jones’ “brilliant mind” as a quarterback is something that is “insanely important” to 49ers HC Kyle Shanahan.
- Although Rapoport mentions that several organizations have Fields graded as the No. 3 quarterback available in the 2021 NFL Draft, he’s unsure if San Francisco is among those teams.
- Rapoport cites that betting odds have Jones as the favorite for the 49ers at No. 3 overall.
Rams
Rams’ WR Robert Woods was asked if he sees QB Matthew Stafford as an upgrade over QB Jared Goff. According to Woods, Stafford still has to prove himself in Los Angeles.
“We gotta see. I would say you gotta see,” Woods said on The Dan Patrick Show. “It’s different, a whole new environment for Stafford to leave Detroit, he’s been in one place his whole career. I would love for it to be an upgrade because of the things we accomplished with Jared Goff and I think if we do have an upgrade at quarterback, I think that’s huge for our team. Been in the playoffs, I think this will get us over the hump. If so, get us into that Super Bowl and finally win it. We got there with Jared, but let’s see what Matthew Stafford can bring to this offense. He does have some stuff to prove. Like you said, he hasn’t won any playoff games, he has the individual stats, but we’re his teammates now and we’re the guys who are going to help him accomplish these things.”
Woods still could not hide his excitement, as he knows the type of success Stafford has had with receivers like Calvin Johnson, Marvin Jones, Golden Tate, and Nate Burelson.
“Yeah, I would say that’s why it’s a perfect combination for our team,” Woods said. “You see with our offense – actually, our whole team – the stuff we have, being able to make the playoffs three out of four years, had a Super Bowl run, and then to get a guy like Stafford who has all the personal stats, who did have Nate Burleson on his other side, he had Calvin Johnson, also with Golden Tate. He’s always had good receivers, so I really think just to get him a part of our winning culture on our team will be really good for him and his career to finally put it together. Let’s bring our winning culture with his winning personality together and let’s accomplish some great things.”
Seahawks
Seahawks WR Tyler Lockett explained that the team has to be more willing to learn new things under new OC Shane Waldron.
“I think there’s a lot of things that we can learn,” Lockett said via Curtis Crabtree. “I think we have to go into it with the mind that’s able to accept and listen and understand and not act like we know everything.”
Lockett continued to say how the offense’s issues last season were struggling to adjust over the course of the season.
“When you look at the first half of our season and you see the way that we played, I mean, why would we ever stop playing like that, right?” Lockett said via Crabtree. “Like, everything is clicking, whatever we choose to do it works so to where we really didn’t have to worry about adjusting. We made everybody adjust to us. So it wasn’t until the second half of the season where we were truly faced with having to learn how to adjust. And that’s the thing that sometimes it’s hard for people in general.”
“Like, even for us is, we’ve done so many things that was like out of this world where people was like, this offense is crazy! To where we didn’t have to adjust. And then when teams started doing some of the things that we hadn’t seen on film, and they were starting to just do certain things to prepare for us, now we had to learn how to be able to see what they’re doing before we attack. And that’s why I said it’s different.”
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