Falcons
Falcons fourth-round CB Clark Phillips III first jumped out on tape to the team when they were watching 2022 first-round WR Drake London. Although London popped off for 16 catches and 162 yards in the game against Utah, Phillips held his own despite the significant size disadvantage. That was a trend that continued the more tape the Falcons watched.
“The more games you watched of Clark, it didn’t matter who he was going against, even last year going against Drake London at USC, this guy will come downhill,” Falcons national scout Michael Ross said via Tori McElhaney of the team website. “(Phillips) is going to bring it. He didn’t shy away from anybody.”
Phillips is only 5-9 and that lack of size caused a lot of teams to pigeonhole him as a slot corner at best. However, Falcons assistant HC/secondary coach Jerry Gray says Phillips just popped as a good football player.
“He reminds me a lot of those guys who may not have the measurables, but he has something you can’t teach,” Gray said. “A lot of people overlook that. They’ll say, ‘Oh, well he doesn’t hit this statute, so I may not even turn the film on.’ Well, I want to see if he’s a good football player. He showed me he was.”
Falcons VP of player personnel Kyle Smith says there are other compensating factors to Phillips’ game that help him overcome his relative lack of size.
“For Clark Phillips, yes, he is short, but he has tremendous lateral agility, tremendous short-area quickness and he’s an instinctive player with ball skills,” Smith said. “There are things that he can compensate with, and he’s an aggressive kid… He’s got some feisty competitiveness to him that we like and you’ve got to have.”
Panthers
Panthers EDGE Brian Burns said he and the team have been in communication regarding a contract extension.
“We’re havin’ conversations,” Burns said, via Panthers Wire. “It’s about the most I could say about it.”
Burns added that he didn’t have a preference on when he’d like the talks to conclude and admitted there was no timeline.
“I don’t have a preference really,” he said. “I’m just kinda blessed to be even in that talk and in that opportunity to have that. So right now, I’m just enjoyin’ the process and enjoyin’ everything that comes with it. I don’t have a timeline,” he added. “I know I wanna be a Panther, that’s all I can tell you. I wanna be a Panther and, like I said, I can’t preach this anymore — I’m truly blessed to be in this position. It’s just like a dream come true just to have these kinda talks. So, it’s how I look at it.”
Saints
New Saints QB Derek Carr is in New Orleans now because his last year with the Raiders didn’t go well. Carr just didn’t mesh with the new coaching staff helmed by HC Josh McDaniels despite a ton of early optimism about the two being a good fit together. He was short on specifics but said there are a ton of lessons he took out of what was a disappointing year otherwise.
“Some of them are personal. Some of them I don’t want to give away because it’s only my 10th year. I don’t want some young guy to learn it. He’s got to learn lessons the hard way,” Carr joked via CBS Sports’ Jonathan Jones. He added. “They just didn’t get my best and that drove me crazy at the end of the year, because I felt so spread out in so many different ways that it’s hard for you to understand because of what’s happening in my mind and in my life. I felt so spread out and was trying to do this and that. Trying to get the guys excited about a certain thing or a certain way even though they could see in my face it was tough. I just didn’t feel like myself. I feel bad for the coaches and players because they didn’t get my best.
“I tried. It wasn’t like I wasn’t trying to give my best. But you sit back and you write it out and learn and say, ‘Oh wow man I’ve got to do this, this and this.’ Go back to making it simple and making it about team and football. For me I’ve tried my best to get back to that. Hopefully it leads to some success.”
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