NFC Notes: Cowboys, Eagles, Washington

Cowboys

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said he doesn’t what to make coaching changes if he doesn’t have to.

“I’m not going to get into any conversations that I’ve had with anybody relative to anything to do with the staff,” Jones said, via ESPN’s Todd Archer. “I understand the interest in it, but there’s nothing compelling me. I’ve got everyone under contract that I want to have under contract. And so that’s where we are.”

However, Jones made it clear that the team needs to be better next year.

“Now let me be real clear, one of the pet peeves I have is that I don’t like this, ‘Well, we’ve got to work on this in the offseason. We’ve got to work on this.’ I don’t go for that,” Jones said. “I want those things recognized and addressed after we play Tampa after the first game or after we play the sixth game. I don’t want to wait until we’re sitting here with no season left to address these things we’re doing or not doing.

“So all of that is in the mix here and a part of what I do. … The ultimate decision on these coaches and anywhere around here is one that I have to make, so the guy that you’re the toughest on should be the one in the mirror. He’s the one that has the ultimate responsibility, and consequently, I get to operate at that guy’s timeline.”

Cowboys HC Mike McCarthy said they will look into offensive line improvements after the team’s line was banged up this year.

“As far as improving, No. 1 is always availability,” McCarthy said Wednesday, via Jon Machota. “You always look at that when you look at successful offensive lines, successful seasons for an offensive line. Availability is probably the No. 1 statistic in that. So get healthy and try to stay healthy. But I think really we have to look at some things fundamentally, particularly pass protection is going to be another area that we’re going to take a little longer look at than normal.”

Eagles

Eagles GM Howie Roseman was expecting more out of first-round WR Jalen Reagor this season and hopes to see continued growth from him in the near future.

“Certainly, heading into Year 3, expected more from Jalen at this point,” Roseman said, via NFL.com. “We had a chance to sit down with him after the season and had an honest conversation about the things that he needs to develop and the things that we can help him develop to continue his growth, in terms of learning from anything. We have to do that. We have to continue to evolve. We kind of have to look at not only the things that maybe we don’t like about our decision-making, not just talking about Jalen in this situation but talking about as a whole but also the things that we did well. I think that’s part of continuing to grow in your job and in your profession.”

Washington

Washington HC Ron Rivera believes the team has the supporting cast necessary to go after a quarterback and be more aggressive than they have the past two offseasons while they were still building. Rivera likes what they’ve built on the offensive line, is high on the potential of young building block players like RB Antonio Gibson and WR Terry McLaurin and believes healthy seasons from guys like TE Logan Thomas, WR Curtis Samuel, RB J.D. McKissic and WR Dyami Brown could make them effective on offense. 

“This is what I grew up on: You have the franchise quarterback, you have to protect him and put playmakers around him,” Rivera said via ESPN’s John Keim. “We did it the other way. We set ourselves up to protect the quarterback; now you’ve got playmakers around him, so let’s see if we can find that [QB] and plug that guy in and see what happens. I like our receiver group. If everyone comes back healthy, ready to roll … we have playmakers around our quarterback.”