NFC Notes: Cardinals, Rams, Sean McVay, Seahawks

Cardinals

Cardinals DL J.J. Watt thinks that the team is stacked on offense and there are plenty of players for QB Kyler Murray to throw the ball to.

“We’ve got a ton of talent and we have a good mix of young guys and vets who can lead the way and, obviously a very talented quarterback,”  Watt said, via CardinalsWire.com. “That offensive core, who the hell do you double team. You’ve got Zach Ertz, you’ve got Hollywood (Marquise Brown), you’ve got Hop (DeAndre Hopkins) when he gets back, you’ve got Rondale Moore, you’ve got James Conner out of the backfield and then you have to worry about Kyler Murray. How do you stop that?”

Rams

Rams HC Sean McVay opened the can of worms earlier this offseason with some comments on retirement. And while it doesn’t seem like the 36-year-old is ready to walk away anytime soon, he confirmed he’s not going to be holding on chasing Patriots HC Bill Belichick or former Dolphins HC Don Shula for most wins. 

“If you said, ‘Do I have a desire to try to chase like Belichick or Don Shula in wins?’ — I really don’t,” McVay said via the Los Angeles Times.

Making the Pro Football Hall of Fame would be a dream for McVay, but he seems to be at peace with the fact it will have to come off of a shorter resume in terms of years of coaching. 

“Hell yeah,” McVay said. “But if you said, ‘Who is the best of all time, or the most successful of all time in terms of longevity . . . that hasn’t ever been something that really has been appealing to me.”

Seahawks

Seahawks OC Shane Waldron has high praise of QB Geno Smith after being Russell Wilson‘s backup and points out that he’s now capable of stepping into a leadership role.  

“Just the natural way that the room works when you’re the backup,” Waldron said, via ProFootballTalk. “One of the good qualities in a good backup is being able to be fully supportive of the starter. And I thought Geno did such an excellent job of really adapting to that role. But now that it’s the competition that we’ve got going, he’s able to step more in that leadership role. So you just hear from him more, you hear from him a little bit more in the meetings, hear from him more out on the field in that leadership role. . . . I think the voice of leadership for Geno is something that you see more and more now, with just the way the roles are with our offense.”

Waldron added that Smith has “full command” of their system and understands the concepts very well. 

“He’s got full command of the offense, knows everything that’s going on, and understands all the concepts, all the run game concepts as well,” Waldron said. “So, he’s done a great job. He did a great job when he was in that No. 2 role, of not just being in the role, but preparing every day like he was going to be the starter that week.”