NFC Notes: Cowboys, Eagles, Giants, Saquon Barkley

Cowboys

Cowboys’ new DC Dan Quinn said he’s been “really impressed” with LB Leighton Vander Esch since arriving in Dallas. 

“I’ve been really impressed, not just from the OTA time,” said Quinn, via Rob Phillips of the team’s official site. “Every once and a while you can just see a person that’s on a mission, and I think that’s what I’ve seen from Leighton from the time I arrived. You could just feel the energy and intensity that he’s putting into his workouts to change his body, to get as strong as he could. From then on, the questions, in the meetings, you could feel the urgency to go.”

Quinn added that Vander Esch has been diligent in improving his tackling and overall techniques.

“I guess, just a quick story for him: the tackling. ‘Hey, I want to improve on this spot.’ The work that we did and the techniques to do it. It’s been so impressive to see him find little things to work on over and over again to complete his game. He’s been very impressive to me so far.”

Eagles

Former Eagles HC Doug Pederson said he is not going to dwell on his shortcomings with Philadelphia and thinks he has a lot of positives to draw from after winning the Super Bowl in 2017.

“Obviously my goal in my hiring in 2016 was to hopefully bring a championship to Philadelphia and we accomplished that in our second year there,” Pederson said, via SiriusXM NFL Radio. “So, I look back on my time and there were a lot of positives I take from it. But I’m not going to dwell too much on the past. I’m gonna learn from it, obviously, and hopefully if I get an opportunity to coach again, which I hope I can do, I’ll take the good with me.”

Giants

Giants RB Saquon Barkley wouldn’t comment on the status of his knee injury when asked about the possibility of ending up on the Physically Unable to Perform list. 

“I think I know better than that,” Barkley said, via the Rich Eisen Show. “I’ve been in the NFL for a little bit now. I think I learned a thing or two.”

Eisen later pressed Barkley about whether fantasy football owners should feel comfortable selecting him.

“If I was a betting man, I was told the best thing to do is bet on yourself, so why not?” Barkley said.