NFC Notes: Dan Quinn, Joe Schoen, Cowboys, Commanders, Giants

Cowboys

• Cowboys HC Brian Schottenheimer was asked about a scenario where LB Micah Parsons was not on the Cowboys in 2025: “I wouldn’t think so. He’s an elite player. He’s a guy we think can wreak havoc on opposing offenses for a long time in a Cowboys uniform.” (Ian Rapoport)
• Schottenheimer on RB Javonte Williams: “Really excited..Love his short-area quickness. I love the power..The hunger he has coming back off the (knee) injury. Some of the best players I’ve ever been around… have chips on their shoulders and Javonte’s hungry.” (Chris Tomasson)
• The Cowboys acquired QB Joe Milton from the Patriots to be their backup quarterback. Mark Daniels reports Milton “wanted out” of New England to have a better chance to compete for a role and didn’t think he had a chance with the Patriots due to Drake Maye and Joshua Dobbs.
• Jordan Schultz confirms the Patriots permitted Milton to seek a trade and the Cowboys showed the most interest. 
• Albert Breer reports that Dallas made the only offer to acquire Milton.

Commanders

Commanders HC Dan Quinn wants his team to bring the competitive fire back again next season, which helped them go deep into the playoffs last season.

“I am hoping the team we are bringing in will be a really competitive group,” said Quinn, via CommandersWire.com. “Like, this is going to be a hard team to make. A lot of positions have some legitimate comp (competition). It’s going to elevate a lot of people. So, if we get that part right, the best teams have huge competitions among positions and in practice, offense and defense. That’s what I hope we can create here.”

Giants

Giants GM Joe Schoen described the process of bringing in both QB Russell Wilson and QB Jameis Winston this off-season and what the future of the position looks like moving forward.

“You look at the pool of players that are available and the different scenarios, whether it’s trades, free agent signings, draft. You know what the pool is going to look like, and then you’ve just got to figure out how you can acquire the best available.” Schoen said, via the team’s website. “It’s obviously a lot of hard work by the pro department and my personnel staff. They did a really good job, and [Senior Vice President of Football Operations & Strategy] Kevin Abrams, [Director of Football Operations] Ed Triggs, and [Manager of Football Administration] Charles [Tisch] do a great job of mirroring the evaluations and the values for players. Not just the quarterback situation, but even some of the other signings that we had, we felt like we got targeted players that we liked and got really good value for what our projections were. So, a lot of focus is on the quarterback. That was a little bit hectic how everything went down, and it was dragging out a little bit longer probably than I’d like. But we’re happy with the way it ended up.”

Schoen added that bringing in Wilson, who has won a Super Bowl in the past will be great for the organization as a whole.

“He’s a 10-time Pro Bowler, a guy who’s throwing for over 20 touchdowns, I believe it’s every year except for two in his career. He played 11 games last year and threw for 16 [touchdowns]. So, the production, he knows what it looks like. He knows how to win. Leadership. I’m just excited to have a guy in the building with as many skins on the wall as he has at the quarterback position.”

Schoen added that Winston will be a high-level backup for the team who can come in if injuries happen and run the offense efficiently.

“We’ve had to play with seven quarterbacks over the last two years. So, backup quarterback was going to be a priority for us, no different than the swing tackle that we signed in [James] Hudson [III]. Due to some of the injuries we’ve had and the way things went down, we knew if our starter was injured at some point, we needed to have somebody who could come in and win games for us. And Jameis has played at a high level in this league. He can still throw it. He had multiple 300-yard games last year. You’re getting another guy who brings leadership to the table as well. To have a guy who’s played as much ball as him, started a lot of games in his career, and still has all the physical tools to play. You feel comfortable with him going in the game and being able to execute.”

Schoen didn’t rule out taking a quarterback third-overall, but he did say that the team is much better place now than when they started free agency, so they won’t have to necessarily draft for need.

“Since I’ve been here, we’ve tried to set it up on draft day that we could go play a game [that day]. I feel like we’re there now. That way, you don’t get backed into a corner or force yourself to do anything. The only year that didn’t happen was probably my first year. We had to cut several players just to get under the salary cap. There were a lot more holes, so maybe you get into some need-based picks in that scenario. But now we’re in a situation where you go through the roster and say, OK, throughout the draft, where can we still upgrade? We’re not done. We still want to upgrade. We have five picks in the top 105. We could go any position, so we’re not ruling any position out.“