NFC Notes: Cowboys, Giants, Washington

Cowboys

Ed Werder reports that the Dallas Cowboys will consider sitting Ezekiel Elliott in order to heal his injured knee.

Cowboys’ HC Mike McCarthy did admit to the media that he had concerns about the injury.

“It’s football,” Elliot said of the injury. “You get hurt. You aren’t going to be 100 percent. I’m tough. Play through it.”

“It’s that time of year,” McCarthy said. “Zeke’s running style is ferocious. He gives a pounding, and he takes some hits. We need to evaluate that, and this week we’ll see what the preparation looks like for him.”

“This knee injury, a bone bruise in his knee, is something that’s going to linger all season unless they step in and basically take Zeke off the field,” Ian Rapoport said of the injury on Friday. “It seems like it’s something that he’s going to play with. He’s not going to be himself, he’s not going to be 100% but he is going to play. That is the plan.”

• Cowboys’ OC Kellen Moore was willing to comment on how the offense was performing as a unit, despite going through some injury woes: “We’re going through some downs. (But) I’m very, very confident that we have the right guys in the room. We’re gonna find a way to turn this around quickly because we’re very, very close.” (Jon Machota)
• Cowboys’ DC Dan Quinn also spoke about DE DeMarcus Lawrence returning from a broken foot: “He’s hit all the markers that you want to hit in terms of healing and training and getting ready. … We are definitely looking forward to getting him back.” (Machota)

Giants

• Albert Breer doesn’t think the Giants will fire HC Joe Judge next year, as ownership likes him and they don’t want to be a team cycling through head coaches.
• Breer mentions that GM Dave Gettleman could end up retiring next year or taking a reduced role. Even so, Breer doesn’t think it’s a certainty that Gettleman is out in New York.
• If the Giants look to hire a GM with ties to Gettleman, Breer suggests Tennessee’s Monti Ossenfort.

Washington

Washington HC Ron Rivera said during an interview with Rich Eisen that he expects the team to announce their new team name “very shortly.”

“Very shortly, I know it’s coming,” Rivera said, via WashingtonFootballWire.com. 

“I have an idea,” Rivera added. “I know that there are three finalists and, I know we are getting ready to order everything and when they all of that, we will know for sure.”

• Washington HC Ron Rivera says that WR Curtis Samuel will be on a pitch count along with TE Logan Thomas. (Rhiannon Walker)
• John Keim confirms that Samuel had core muscle surgery in June and later had an MRI, steroid injection, and anti-inflammatory injection ahead of the Buccaneers’ game.
• Samuel spoke about the injury with the media: “I didn’t imagine it to go this long. It’s really crazy. It’s frustrating. … When you want to be out there so bad and something like this happens, it brings you down a little bit. I had a lot of people in my corner to help get my spirits up.” (Nicki Jhabvala)