NFC Notes: Commanders, Cowboys, Eagles

Commanders

Commanders LB coach Steve Russ spoke about the improvements he has seen from linebackers Cole Holcomb and Jamin Davis, with Holcomb attempting to help Davis round out his game.

“I’ve seen growth really everywhere in his game. It starts with how he prepares mentally. He’s done a great job. I think Cole Holcomb does a really, really good job of preparation. He watches a ton of film and the two of them have started doing that together,” Russ said, via CommandersWire.com. “I think Cole has been able to help him with that because I think that’s one of Cole’s strengths. So, I’ve seen him improve his preparation. He’s getting more consistent, and that’s what we’re fighting for; it’s consistency.”

“I think also his key reads are starting to improve,” Russ continued. “That was an issue last year, obviously, and it’s something that we continue to work on all the time. Linebackers are always working on key reads, but especially linebackers that come right outta college because it’s such a shotgun-oriented game in college and you come into the NFL, and sure, there’s a lot of shotgun, don’t get me wrong, but a lot of the teams that we play in that run game is under center.”

“Everybody in the National Football League does what? Can you do it better than everybody else and also, can you understand the why behind it? Because they try to confuse us, right? You look at the offenses, I watched college last night, and I’m a long-time college guy, but they don’t move around as much as the NFL does and that’s all to create defensive confusion,” Russ concluded. “I don’t wanna speak for Jamin on that. I know I will say just from my interactions with Jamin that Jamin’s very prideful. He wants to be a good player. He wants to play well. He wants to play well not just for himself, he wants to play well for his team, for his defense.”

• Per the Athletic’s Ben Standig, Commanders HC Ron Rivera acknowledged they have had discussions about being sellers ahead of the NFL trade deadline in a couple of weeks: “You can’t be closed-minded. So that’s what I’m trying not to do.”
• Added Rivera, whose team is 2-4 with games against the Packers and Colts up next: “I do want to win (now). That first year (with a new team), that’s a different set of circumstances. Last year … was rough. Now, into this season, we’ve had some unfortunate things happen. But at the same time … we’ll see in two weeks.”
• Standig said there’s nothing to suggest the Commanders are considering trading RB Antonio Gibson. However, if they were to explore his market they could probably get by without him as running back is a position they’re quite deep at.