NFC Notes: Cowboys, Giants, Isaiah Wilson

Cowboys

• Cowboys’ WR Amari Cooper praised second-year CB Trevon Diggs: “I’ve been telling people about Diggs. I go against him, so I would know. Even if I win the rep, you can tell just by the competitiveness of the guy. If he does get beat in practice, he’s always right there. … He’s a ballhawk. He’s legit for sure.” (Jon Machota)
• Cooper also had great things to say about QB Dak Prescott: “He’s such a fearless QB. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. This guy just came off a season-ending injury and he had Ndamukong Suh coming at him full speed and he’s stepping into throws … Because that’s how much he wants to win.” (Machota)
• OUT for Week 4: DE Dorance Armstrong (ankle), T Ty Nsekhe (illness), DE Carlos Watkins (knee), S Donovan Wilson (groin)
  QUESTIONABLE for Week 4: DE Randy Gregory (knee)

Giants

Despite having just 134 yards rushing on 39 carries through three games, Giants’ RB Saquon Barkley is still unwilling to make any excuses.

“I don’t want to make any excuses. I’m not going to do that throughout this whole season,” said Barkley, via Jordan Raanan of ESPN. “I’m never going to make any excuses. The expectation that people have for me, it’s not even close to the expectation I have for myself — and it never will be as long as I play football or whatever I do after football. That is just my mindset. I hold myself to a high standard. I know this team holds me to a high standard. I know a lot of people hold me to a high standard. Like I always say, I set my own expectations. Right now I just have to keep working, keep growing, keep improving. I know what I’m coming off of. My mom and dad try to make me understand I’m coming off a knee injury. Try to teach me patience in there. I just have to keep being patient with it. I have to keep getting better and keep trusting it, trusting the process, and keep working. My touches have been going up. My workload has been going up. Every week I’m getting better. It’s kind of the process of coming off a major knee injury. I can see myself from Week 3 to Week 1, how much better a player I am already. And I’ve got to keep trusting the process.”

• OUT for Week 4: G Ben Bredeson (hand), WR Sterling Shepard (hamstring), WR Darius Slayton (hamstring)
• QUESTIONABLE for Week 4: CB Keion Crossen (elbow), LB Tae Crowder (hamstring), S Nate Ebner (quadricep), TE Kaden Smith (knee)

Isaiah Wilson

No team has dipped more into the well that is Georgia football the past few seasons than the Giants, as they’ve taken four former Bulldogs in the past three drafts. They added a fifth by signing troubled former first-round OT Isaiah Wilson to their practice squad this week. One of his teammates, Giants LT Andrew Thomas, is confident Wilson can turn things around in New York. 

“Great kid,” Thomas said via SNY’s Ralph Vacchiano. “Definitely talented. I’m excited to see what he does. Glad they’re giving him a chance. I’m looking forward to seeing what he’s done. He had some time off away from football to get his stuff together. So I’m excited to be able to work with him and trying to help bring him along.”

Wilson also hails from Brooklyn, so the team is hoping they have an environment he can succeed in. But the list of transgressions for Wilson is shockingly long for a first-round pick just last April and the Giants will already be his third team. Still, HC Joe Judge, who has shown he’s not above taking shots on players deemed character risks, defended the move. 

“I have a lot of trust in the program we have here, to put people in position to be successful,” Judge said. “I don’t think there is a blanket of what someone else has done with someone that has to tie into how they do successfully for you. I think there’s a point in time when everybody needs a fresh start. I think if you treat everyone on an individual basis and understand the person and you address someone as a person in terms of what’s best for that guy to help get them on their straight and narrow, then they have a chance for success.”

One league source weighed in on what he sees as a desperation signing for New York.

“If the Giants sign him, that’s like letting the fox guard the henhouse,” the league source told Pat Leonard of the New York Daily News. “Unreal they did it. How can John Mara and Dave Gettleman trade Odell because they say he was a distraction and then let this guy in the building? How are you going to trade a generational talent — somebody who’s proven their worth in terms of jersey sales, merchandise, and performance on the field — but then bring this guy in who hasn’t played, hasn’t played well, and has off the field issues?”