NFC Notes: Derek Carr, Kirk Cousins, Buccaneers, Falcons, Saints

Buccaneers

• Buccaneers QB Baker Mayfield said his comments about the environment from QB Tom Brady‘s tenure were overblown and “none of it was personal.” (Jenna Laine)

Falcons

Atlants improved to 2-2 after a win against the Saints but failed to score an offensive touchdown. Falcons QB Kirk Cousins knows they have to be better on that side of the ball if they want to have sustained success.

“There are a lot of things to fix. . . . It’s such an outcome-driven league. So, to have a win is a big deal, but you never really stop going back and analyzing the performance and looking at how to be better,” Cousins said, via Tori McElhaney of the team’s website.

• Falcons HC Raheem Morris on TE Kyle Pitts after a zero-catch game: “It was just about going out there and winning the game… Stats are for losers, man. I don’t get involved in that stuff.” (The Coachspeak Index)
• Morris said they’re going to monitor LB Troy Andersen on a short week with his knee injury: “He’s hurting pretty good.” (Tori McElhaney)
• Falcons S Justin Simmons was fined $22,511 for Unnecessary Roughness (use of the helmet) in Week 3.

Saints

Saints QB Derek Carr was understandably frustrated about dropping a game to their divisional rival.

“It hurts,” Carr said, via PFT. “You try your best not to be so angry about it, but you hate losing. You hate losing, especially close ones. They just stink. I thought positively, we ran the ball, we threw it effectively. Compared to last week, I thought we got better, but just like Debo [Paulson Adebo] said, it’s not good enough. We got to do better, and obviously, it wasn’t enough to get a win today.”

Carr still believes that the team is in a much better position to compete in 2024 versus last season.

“I’ll say that just as a team, we’re just in such a much better place than last year,” Carr said. “Last year, everything was new, and we’re all figuring each other out. This year, we know who we are, and we know what we’ve earned. We’ve earned 2-2. That’s what we’ve earned. It’s not good enough. Not good enough in our organization to be .500. That’s never the standard for us, and that will never be acceptable as leaders. That’s just not acceptable here. We hold that standard, but at the same time, there’s no pointing fingers. It’s all people pointing their thumb at themselves saying, ‘I will do that better, I will do that better, I’ll do that better, and we’re going to be better.’ We’ve been here. We know the mindset and the work it takes. We know that it doesn’t get easier as you go forward. Having that experience to go off of last year is a benefit, honestly, because we’re going to rally together. I know one thing, our team’s going to get tighter, and we’re going to be more unified going forward, even more so than today. We’ll keep going and hopefully build on getting a win, get back in the win column.”