NFC Notes: Commanders, Cowboys, Lions

Commanders

• Ben Standig reports that Commanders scout Don Warren is retiring.

Cowboys

Cowboys S Jayron Kearse expects himself to have a big year in Dallas, as this will likely be his second as a full-time starter.

“Considering the trajectory of my career, to be at this point that I’m at now, it’s a huge accomplishment for me,” Kearse said, via David Helman of DallasCowboys.com. “But I’m still with the same mindset that there’s more out there for me, and I’m working to go get that. It’s very different than it was last year – especially around this time, Around this time last year, I was coming in and competing, just trying to get my feet wet and earn my way here.”

Lions

Lions HC Dan Campbell and DC Aaron Glenn spoke about how they will be changing things up defensively this coming season.

“I just think more of it is, I just call it much more ‘hitting the blocks,’” Campbell said, via SI.com. “I don’t want to say we were catching, and it wasn’t two-gap, we just were a little more, ‘Play at the line of scrimmage,’ where now we really want to play more on their side of the line of scrimmage. That’s the best way to describe it.”

“We still have all the front variations, all those things, but I think that will probably be the biggest difference that anybody would notice, is just the fact that we want to — we’re not just running through gaps and closing our eyes and stuff like that,” Campbell said. “We’re not like that, but we are much more, ‘Hit the blocks and play on their side of the line of scrimmage,’ which is a little bit different than what we were last year.”

“It is a more aggressive style of defense,” Glenn added. “I want to be able to take advantage of every player, their ability as much as I can. I want to take advantage of that athleticism that Alim [McNeill] has. I want to showcase that. It makes sense. I want to showcase it. I want to showcase what Levi [Onwuzurike] shows at the scene. I want to showcase what Aidan [Hutchinson] could do when I’m kicking him inside to do things. I want to showcase wha [Josh Paschal] can do. So I’m looking at every player’s ability and how can I showcase this.”