NFC Notes: Cardinals, Panthers, Vikings

Cardinals

• Josh Weinfuss reports that Cardinals GM Steve Keim didn’t misrepresent himself as the team’s director of security during his recent DUI arrest.
• Instead, the reporting officer misunderstood Keim at the time but after reviewing footage of the interaction, police found the mistake.
• The body cam footage from the DUI arrest shows Keim saying: “Shawn Kinsey (the team’s VP of security) is our director of security. I work for the Cardinals. And, so, he works for the Chandler Police.” (Josh Weinfuss)
• Kent Somers adds that Keim mentioning Cardinals security director to officers isn’t part of the team’s policy, but it’s a practice that is encouraged when an employee has interaction with police.
• Here’s the video of Keim’s arrest: (TMZ Sports)

Panthers

New Panthers OC Norv Turner explained during an interview with Sirius XM NFL Radio that he’s hoping to help QB Cam Newton be more consistent this season and in turn eliminate some of the up-and-down play he’s had the past few seasons.

“He gets away with that because he makes so many big plays in the running game,” Turner said of Newton. “But the one thing that I think when you look at it that we’re going to work hard to help him is, he has a large number of games where his quarterback rating is as high as anyone’s is. It’s in the high 90s, low 100s.

“But in the middle of that, of a 16-game season, he has four or five games where that rating is not very good. And that, obviously, makes your average not as good as you’d like. So what we’re going to try to work hard for is eliminate the peaks and the valleys and try to, on a weekly basis, make it more consistent. And I think that’ll help us, offensively, be more consistent and certainly will help him.”

Vikings

• Andrew Krammer of the Star-Tribune takes a look at five Vikings’ players expected to outperform their contracts this season.
• Krammer’s list includes WR Adam Thielen, RB Dalvin Cook, C Pat Elflein, DE Brian Robison and S Harrison Smith.
• As for an honorable mention, Krammer tossed out OT Rashod Hill, who has been taking reps with the first-team offense at right tackle this offseason.