NFC Notes: Cardinals, Rams, Seahawks, Geno Smith

Cardinals

• According to Jeremy Fowler, the Cardinals will pay recently acquired TE Zach Ertz his full remaining salary for 2021, which is around $5.6 million.
• Fowler notes that “several teams” made offers for Ertz since March, but Philadelphia held off on a deal until Friday. 
• Jonathan Jones reports that the Cardinals have “real concern” about the severity of TE Maxx Williams’ knee injury and the move for Ertz could’ve been done while having “beyond” 2021 in mind. 
• The Arizona Cardinals worked out P Corliss Waitman on Thursday, per Aaron Wilson.
• OUT for Week 6: TE Zach Ertz (not injury related), C Rodney Hudson (ribs, shoulder), LB Tanner Vallejo (hand)
• QUESTIONABLE for Week 6: T Kelvin Beachum (ribs), RB Chase Edmonds (shoulder), LB Jordan Hicks (toe), CB Byron Murphy (ribs), CB Marco Wilson (ribs)

Rams

Rams’ RB Darrell Henderson says he is still healing from his rib injury but is comfortable playing through the pain.

“I mean, I don’t really want to talk about that part of it, but I feel pretty good,” Henderson said, via RamsWire.com. “I’m just taking it a day at a time, playing through it. So it’ll eventually get there, but right now I’m going to keep fighting through it.”

Henderson had a strong game last week sharing time with RB Sony Michel but remains eager to show what the pair can do.

“You can’t be satisfied with that,” Henderson said. “You’ve got to keep working and come out each and every day wanting to be better, so I’m not going to settle for that. It’s hard to stop either one of us when we’re fresh, so the main plan is to keep everybody fresh and when we’re fresh, we’re going to show everybody what we’re capable of doing. Now we’ve just got to be consistent and be able to bring it every week.”

Seahawks

Seahawks HC Pete Carroll said QB Geno Smith is eager for his chance to “help his team” now that he’s filling in for Russell Wilson.

“He loves the fact that he has this chance to help his team,” Carroll said, via ProFootballTalk. “That’s why he’s been here, for this opportunity when it does arise. I was so proud of him and so happy for him to be able to jump out there and have a chance to take us down there and win a game. We were going down there to win the game and none of us were thinking otherwise.”

Carroll praised Smith’s ability to communicate with his teammate and having “great throwing mechanics.” 

“He takes great pride in his work and knowing the details,” Carroll said. “He’s really verbal and really articulate with the football stuff that he needs to know. He’s really sharp with the calls and checks. He’s a really good athlete and has a tremendous throwing arm, he can throw the ball a mile and can throw the ball hard on the move and going in both directions. He scrambles, we saw him the other night. He’s a tough competitor and has good touch too. He throws the ball impeccably well, he has great throwing mechanics, and can make all of the throws.”

Carroll added that Smith has stayed “prepared to play” and has embraced his role as Seattle’s backup. 

“What he’s done also is that he’s prepared to play every single week that we have ever been out here. He’s always been prepared to go, always worked hard at it, knew how important it was to do that, and he embraced the role of it. You can see it, look at how sharp he was for jumping in there. He was prepared to do that,” Carroll said.

• OUT for Week 6: RB Chris Carson (neck), T Cedric Ogbuehi (biceps, chest), QB Russell Wilson (right finger)