NFC Notes: Commanders, Eagles, Giants, Daniel Jones

Commanders

Commanders DT Phidarian Mathis, who suffered a torn meniscus in Week 1, said he’s been rehabbing throughout the season and has been making “great progress” with his injury. 

“I’ve been here the whole time,” Mathis said, via Zach Shelby of the team’s official site. “I trust the trainers in there. We’ve been making great progress.”

Mathis said suffering the injury was difficult on him but Washington’s trainers are helping him with his recovery. 

“It was very hard to take, a tough pill to swallow, for sure,” Mathis said. “The first couple of weeks, I was down, I was out, but I just put it in God’s hands and let him handle the rest.”

Mathis is eager to “come back even harder” in his second season in the NFL. 

“I’m gonna give it another try next year,” Mathis said. “I’m gonna come back even harder. So, everybody will see.”

• Jason La Canfora of the Washington Post tosses out Eagles backup QB Gardner Minshew as a potential fit for the Commanders this offseason.
• La Canfora also expects the Commanders to have an interest in Derek Carr this offseason.

Eagles

Regarding the Eagles’ upcoming NFC Championship game against the 49ers, DC Jonathan Gannon said it’s important that their defense makes successful tackles. 

“Schematically, they get the ball to guys in space, and then they have the guys that are touching the ball, those are part of their unique skill sets where they can break tackles, they can run away from people, they can make people miss in space, and I’m not just talking about one or two guys. It’s really everybody that’s touching the ball,” Gannon said, via NFL.com. “I think it’s a good job by Kyle. He knows how to get guys in space, and then those guys have unique skill sets. That’s why they’re a really good offense is they’ve got playmakers. So, we’re going to have do a good job with those guys because sometimes guys are going to have help, sometimes they won’t depending on the call. That will be definitely a key to victory for us is tackling.”

Gannon pointed out that the 49ers strategically align players like TE George Kittle, FB Kyle Juszczyk, RB Christian McCaffrey, WR Deebo Samuel, and WR Brandon Aiyuk in multiple ways. 

“They do a lot of different things with (Kittle),” Gannon said. “It’s not just like they align him here and these are the couple things that he does. He does a lot of different things for them, and they use him accordingly like they do with (Juszczyk), the fullback, 44, with McCaffrey, with Deebo, with Aiyuk. They use all those guys in different ways. It makes it hard to defend. We’ve just got to understand when he’s aligned in different spots how they’re using him and what we need to take away.”

• Albert Breer mentions that Vic Fangio is a possibility for the Panthers and Dolphins as defensive coordinator. He could also replace the current defensive coordinators with the 49ers (DeMeco Ryans) and Eagles (Jonathan Gannon) should they wind up getting head coaching jobs. 

Giants

There seems to be a chance that Giants GM Joe Schoen could wind up paying QB Daniel Jones at least $40 million per year this offseason and is unlikely to get the hometown discount after deciding not to pick up his fifth-year option, which would have cost the team $22 million in 2023.

“We’d like Daniel to be here. We feel like Daniel played well this season,” Schoen said, via Ralph Vacchiano. “He’s done everything we’ve asked him to do. There’s a business side to it. We haven’t gone down that road yet. But we would like to have DJ back.”