NFC Notes: Cowboys, Eagles, Washington

Cowboys

• Jon Machota of The Athletic analyzes the Cowboys defensive free agents this offseason, taking a look at who the team should 
• Machota spares no man and believes the team needs to move on from all of the aforementioned free agents, including DT Eli Ankou, CB Chidobe Awuzie, DL Tyrone Crawford, LB Sean Lee, CB Jourdan Lewis, LB Justin March-Lillard, LB Aldon Smith, LB Joe Thomas, and S Xavier Woods.

• Jeremy Fowler, citing teams “closely evaluating” the quarterback market, reports that Eagles GM Howie Roseman ultimately wants a first-round pick in exchange for Carson Wentz.
• Although Fowler’s sources indicate that a deal could come “sooner than later,” the belief is that only a select number of teams are interested due to Wentz being owed $47 million over the next two years. 
• According to Greg A. Bedard, the Eagles are requesting two first-round picks in exchange for Carson Wentz, which led to a previously “favored landing spot” losing interest.
• Michael Lombardi tweets that he knows of one team that laughed at the Eagles’ asking price of a “Jay Cutler type deal” — two first-round picks and a third-round selection. 
• Mark Berman reports that the Eagles have hired University of Houston CBs coach Jay Valai to their coaching staff. 

Washington 

Washington HC Ron Rivera said they want to find the “right” quarterback after missing out on the trade for Matthew Stafford. 

“We’ve got to make sure we find the right one,” Rivera said, via John Keim of ESPN. “Is it imperative to find the right guy now? No, not necessarily.”

Rivera mentioned that Washington’s offense does not dictate whether they require a pocket passer or mobile quarterback. 

“One of the beauties of what we do offensively is we’re not stuck on one particular style of play for our quarterback,” Rivera said. “We’re stuck on the right kind of person.”

Rivera added that while they are “exploring options,” Washington is currently focused on its four quarterbacks Alex Smith, Kyle Allen, Taylor Heinicke, and Steven Montez.

“We have four guys and right now those are the four guys we’re looking at, but also exploring options,” Rivera said. “We’re in a tough situation because it’s so early in the offseason.”

As for the Lions’ acquiring a 2022 and 2023 first-round picks and QB Jared Goff from the Rams, Rivera mentioned that Washington wanted to avoid overspending and would’ve felt uncomfortable parting with the package Detroit ultimately got from the Rams.

“I like trades, but I don’t like coming away from a trade feeling it was one-sided,” Rivera said. “If we had dove into what happened with the Detroit trade, I don’t know how I would have felt about it. I’m ambivalent to it. But I don’t think that’s something I would want to do. If you get what you want, but you don’t have what you need, then you create problems. If you can’t protect the quarterback, or if you don’t have playmakers around him, then what’s the good of having that guy? We’re still building our roster. We have to be very careful with the decisions we make.”

• The Washington Football Team announced that they have promoted WRs coach Jim Hostler to senior offensive assistant and named quality control coach Drew Terrell as their new receivers coach.