NFC Notes: Commanders, Cowboys, Eagles

Commanders

• Jason La Canfora of the Washington Post identifies Commanders DT Daron Payne as a franchise tag candidate, at a sum of just under $19 million. 
• The Commanders met with Maryland OL Spencer Anderson. He was a participant in the Shrine Bowl this year. (Ryan Fowler)

Cowboys

Former Cowboys RB Emmitt Smith believes that the team needs to find a way to keep both Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard. He also noted that he would bring in help for WR CeeDee Lamb.

“I’m keeping both,” Smith told Pro Football Talk. “I may franchise tag Pollard and I may go for a contract restructure with Zeke. But I’m keeping both, and the reason why is because we’ve got to get Pollard back healthy, and we need Zeke, and we need Malik as well. We need that three-headed monster right now to rotate. Malik gives us a chance to get Pollard time to get back healthy again.”

“I’ve got to CeeDee Lamb some help,” Smith added. “There were some other decisions that could have been made [last offseason] that would have given CeeDee Lamb the help he needed. I mean, losing Wilson? If you let Amari go, you’ve got to keep Cedrick Wilson. That’s how I see some of that. They have to get somebody to help support him, blow the top off defenses, so they cannot put Lamb in a box and have him try to make miraculous catches and expose him to injury.”

• The Cowboys hired former USC senior offensive analyst Will Harriger as an offensive assistant. (Todd Archer)

Eagles

Eagles HC Nick Sirianni will now have to begin the process of replacing both his offensive and defensive coordinator as Shane Steichen and Jonathan Gannon are departing for head coaching positions with the Colts and Cardinals following Philadelphia’s Super Bowl loss.

“That is a very important part of being a head coach, is who you replace guys with,” Sirianni said, via Zach Berman of The Athletic. “You’re hoping that you have success. You’re hoping you lose guys for the benefit of them and their career and their family. You hate to lose guys because the reason they’re here in the first place is that I felt like they were really good coaches. Just like you go into a job interview and you say, ‘I want this guy, this guy, and this guy.’ That’s not always the reality that you’re going to get all those guys. It’s the same scenario here. Of course, I want to keep these guys, they’re great coordinators, but in the event that I lose them, I have an idea of what I want to do at both spots. The answer is sometimes, yes, it’s in the building. Sometimes it’s outside of the building. But I feel like we have a lot of good options, and I feel like we have a lot of good options in the building that we’d be excited about if that were to happen.”

Many believe QB coach Brian Johnson could be an in-house candidate for an offensive coordinator and he has drawn praise from QB Jalen Hurts. Meanwhile, DB coach Dennard Wilson could be a homegrown choice for the defensive coordinator and was complimented by Sirianni as well.

“Brian’s a really smart coach,” Sirianni said. “He’s played this game at a high level at Utah and now he coaches at a high level, and I think what you always want for coaches is to make this game that is complex, simple. So because they’re making these decisions in split seconds, and it’s hard to play this game in your mind, super complex, you have to play it simple. So you play fast. And Brian does a great job of that, putting himself in the shoes of a quarterback because he’s been there, and then just simplifying the read — from simplifying the checks, from simplifying the defense and chunking information together. And I’m really glad that Brian Johnson is on the staff.”

“He’s going to be a star one day. He’s going to become a big-time head coach one day, I have no doubt in my mind,” Hurts said. “That’s coming from a personal friendship with him and I. Also, being able to play for him. I know everything about him. … My dad coached him, being the youngest coach to be the OC at Utah — all those things, he has a great track record. And hopefully, we can keep him here as long as we possibly can. But nonetheless, I’m proud of him, and it’s definitely just the beginning for the both of us.”

“He’s just a great leader of men, and he’s able to bring a group together,” Sirianni said of Wilson. “I look at Coach Dennard like a really good offensive line coach where you’ve got to bring them all together. They’ve all got to play as one, and that’s a really important position to make sure you’re doing this, and Dennard is really good at that.”