NFC Notes: Carson Wentz, Commanders, Cowboys, Eagles

Commanders

Commanders RB J.D. McKissic voiced confidence in QB Carson Wentz given he was once an MVP candidate with the Eagles. 

“I’m trying to remind guys that he was an MVP candidate,” McKissic said, via Ben Standig of The Athletic. “So, we’re excited about him. He looks great and he’s doing great.”

Wentz believes it’s important to be a “game manager” at this point of his career instead of always looking for the big play. 

“One hundred percent of the time it pays to be effective, be a game manager,” said Wentz. “Then know when’s the right time to strike. Hopefully, you can toe that line perfectly.”

Wentz feels “more mature” as a quarterback and thinks he has quicker instincts now entering his seventh year in the NFL. 

“I think as you get older and your mindset changes, your approach changes, get a little smarter, a little more mature, then you process faster,” Wentz said. “I think those instincts can be better. But at the end of the day, when your back is against the wall … that fight-or-flight instinct will come out of a lot of guys, when you’re really squeezed or in that pressure situation. So hopefully, the instincts are good in those moments.”

Cowboys

• Cowboys HC Mike McCarthy is confident that Dak Prescott‘s ankle is fine and they are just being cautious with him: “I just saw him (this morning). He’s doing fine. Just being cautious. Any time something happens close to where he had the injury, you just have to look at it and be smart. It’s not a big deal.” (Jon Machota)
• McCarthy said that they haven’t changed any of their practice schedule around Prescott: “To be totally honest with you, we haven’t changed one thing. We had our normal meetings last night. Dak is part of that. We’re right on schedule.” (Jon Machota)
• McCarthy had high praise of fourth-round TE Jake Ferguson and thinks he fits their system: “[He] definitely exactly what his profile was when he drafted him. He’s what we need, too.”  (Michael Gehlken)
• McCarthy said recently signed LT Jason Peters is already improving the team: “[He’s] made us better… He’s done an excellent job communicating with Tyler Smith… It’s been a really good fit for the room.” (Michael Gehlken)

Eagles

Eagles C Jason Kelce thinks that HC Nick Sirianni will have an added level of comfort in his second year with the team but believes the coach must continue with a focus on improving. 

“Yeah I mean probably a little bit. I think that is going to happen regardless anytime somebody is going into a second year with the city, the team, the building. You are going to have that level of comfort go up,” Kelce said, via Eliot Shorr-Parks of 94WIP. “But to be honest, I don’t like comfort. I think comfort is a f*ing terrible place to be if you are in this league…I know everybody expects us to be Super Bowl champions in Philadelphia right now and I think that can definitely happen but it isn’t going to happen being comfortable I can guarantee you that. It is going to happen respecting your opponents, it is going to happen respecting the game and understanding if you don’t go out there and fing work every single day, if you don’t go out there with the mindset that there are things we need to work on and improve on even single day, you don’t get to that mindset being comfortable. So I hope he is not comfortable. I hope he is very uncomfortable.”

Kelce reiterated that the entire team must not get complacent after wins or having high expectations. 

“I think when the expectations are high you tend to let little things go. After a win the tape gets assessed differently. After a loss the tape gets critical very, very much because people start feeling it. You have to improve everything when you lose. After a win it is like ‘Eh well was that a bad play, it was 50/50, eh.’ It goes a little bit by the wayside,” Kelce said. “I think when you are expected to do well organizationally, player wise, team wise, coaching wise, all of those little things start to be like ‘Eh, we’ll get that fixed.’ As opposed to when the expectations are low it is ‘We have to fix everything right fing now otherwise we are getting fired. Otherwise people are going to be on the streets.’ I think we have enough older guys around this building. I think we have enough executives, coaches or players to understand that expectations are just that — they are fucg nothing. And we have to go out there and play. We have to go out there and the moment you are comfortable in this league somebody is coming for you. We got Mr. T in Rocky 3. He is going to be hunting us every single week. We haven’t won f***ing nothing yet. We aren’t even the champion. So we better work our asses off.”