NFC Notes: Cardinals, Jonathan Gannon, Rams, Seahawks

Cardinals

Regarding Cardinals GM Monti Ossenfort violating the league’s tampering rules, HC Jonathan Gannon responded the situation stems from when Ossenfort reached out to see if Gannon would be interested in their head coaching job. 

“It’s a mistake that we made. The league kind of rectified it and we’ve moved on,” Gannon said, via Bo Brack of PHNX Sports. “Basically, after the NFC Championship game, Monti reached out and kinda said ‘Congratulations.’ He’s been to some Super Bowls and gave me a little advice about how to handle that and said ‘Look, we’re in the middle of a coaching search and don’t know how the timing of this is all going to shake out, but, basically, would you be interested in interviewing if the timing gets pushed back to after Super Bowl?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, I would be.’ I didn’t hear about it until after the game that we played when [Eagles General Manager] Howie [Roseman] came up and talked to me about ‘Hey, Arizona wants to interview you.’ It was a mistake that we made and I apologize for that. Looking forward to moving on now.”

Rams

Rams HC Sean McVay said a lot of the members from the team’s 2023 draft class will have an opportunity to start on opening day.

“We got a lot better in terms of the depth of our football team,” McVay said, via Rams Wire. “Now how these guys come in and earn their opportunities, what that looks like, but there’s a handful of these guys that are going to come in and have legitimate chances to be starters on opening day, but that’s all going to be earned.”

McVay is also counting on second-year guys stepping up and making the most of their opportunities.

“We’ve got some guys that are in-house that we expect to take steps in the right direction, especially a handful of those guys that are going into their second year that got their feet a little bit wet as a result of the amount of injuries,” he said. “And so when you look at it from a positive lens, I think that’ll be a good thing, but we’re a much more competitive football team by the nature of these 14 players.”

Seahawks

The Seahawks took the first receiver off the board, kicking off a run of four straight in the first round of the draft. Seahawks HC Pete Carroll discussed why first-round WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba was their choice out of every receiver in this class. 

“We see Jaxon fitting in as that third guy with [D.K. Metcalf and Tyler Lockett] and will complement them and make them better,” Carroll said via ESPN’s Brady Henderson. “He can play right now. He’ll be able to do everything that we want him to do. He had a marvelous workout at the school when we were there. He showed us the kind of physical stuff that we needed to see … because he has a unique way that he plays the game. He has great catching range, is a great catcher, has a terrific feel, is an excellent competitor, can make all kinds of clutch plays, and is a come-through guy that I know Geno is going to fall in love with.”

• ESPN’s Brady Henderson mentions that while the Seahawks had a high grade on QB Anthony Richardson, it’s unlikely he would have been the pick at No. 5 overall, as that would have been a steep cost to pay for a quarterback who would have been a backup for at least his rookie season on a team that has big plans to contend in 2023.