NFC Notes: Chris Godwin, Jaycee Horn, Buccaneers, Panthers, Saints

Buccaneers

Buccaneers WR Chris Godwin suffered a gruesome season-ending ankle injury in Week 7. Godwin is keeping hope alive for a late-season return in the playoffs and explained his rehab process so far. 

“I mean, I think that’s best-case scenario, right? Like absolute best case,” Godwin said, via ESPN’s Jenna Laine. “For all involved. Everything lines up. That’s what you kind of aim for.”

“It’s a very different injury, and obviously I’ve never been through this before, but I trust the people that I’m going to be working with to help give me back. And the biggest thing for me is make sure that it’s secure, make sure that it’s strong and stable, and I’m not at risk of reinjury. But there’s a lot of stuff in the beginning that you can do to prepare yourself to make an acceleration later in the rehab process, just by doing some of the little things or little extra little things.”

• The Buccaneers hosted S J.T. Woods for a workout this week, per Aaron Wilson. 
• Buccaneers HC Todd Bowles discussed their recent defensive struggles: “What’s going to happen is we have four or five plays per game where we wither miss a tackle or we’re not dropping where we’re supposed to and we give up a big play and I’ll continue to call plays.” (Rick Stroud)

Panthers

The Broncos ran trick plays late in their win over the Panthers despite having the game completely in control. Carolina CB Jaycee Horn didn’t appreciate their actions but he downplayed his interaction with Denver HC Sean Payton following the game.

“They can win in whatever style they want, but I felt like it was just disrespectful,” Horn said, via Mike Kaye of the Charlotte Observer. “And that was just what it was. We’re focused on New Orleans now. I’m really not that caught up into that specific moment, it’s just I felt it was disrespectful. Whatever happened, happened after the game, and we’re moving on.”

“It wasn’t necessarily directed at him… I was going back and forth with (their) players on the sideline. …. They have every right to win in style or however they want to do that. But I’m allowed to have my opinion on that, too. And I just felt it was disrespectful. And so, after the game, I was just going back and forth with (their) players, and Coach Payton just got in the middle of it. But it wasn’t no banter back and forth between us.”

Saints

• Saints GM Mickey Loomis doesn’t have any plans on trading away a bulk of players ahead of the deadline: “I’m not really one that thinks trading away half your roster makes a lot of sense at this point generally for what I think are undervalued offers.” (Nick Underhill)
• Loomis credited their six-game losing streak to the amount of injuries sustained, particularly to QB Derek Carr: “Whenever you have results that don’t match your expectations you have to look at the underlying reasons why, right? Look, we have answers for lots of things. We have answers when we have players get hurt. We have answers when you lose your quarterback for a couple games. “I don’t know that I have answers when you have an avalanche of injuries and you lose your quarterback for that period of time. That’s just difficult and we haven’t been able to overcome that, and we played some good teams too as well.” (Underhill)
• New Orleans HC Dennis Allen announced Carr will practice on Wednesday and he’s hopeful he can play in Week 9. (Katherine Terrell)
• Allen said the team won’t be sellers at the deadline: “We’re not in sell mode.” (Nick Underhill)
• Saints RB Alvin Kamara‘s two-year, $23.5 million contract extension includes a $15.5 million signing bonus and $22.23 million is guaranteed. His 2025 $2,990,000 salary is fully guaranteed while his $11,500,000 is not guaranteed. He can earn a $1,000,000 roster bonus and $500,000 in per-game roster bonus, along with a $100,000 workout bonus. (OverTheCap)
• The Saints work out three cornerbacks this week including Tre Herndon, Cornell Armstrong, and Steven Gilmore, per Aaron Wilson. 
• Of this group, New Orleans signed Herndon to their practice squad. 
• Saints WR Bub Means has a high ankle sprain and will miss time, per Rod Walker.