NFC Notes: DeVonta Smith, Jerry Jones, Mike McCarthy, Commanders, Cowboys, Eagles

Commanders

• The Commanders worked out four players this week including WR Deon Cain, WR Chase Cota, WR Mike Strachan and S Ben Nikkel, per Howard Balzer. 
• Of this group, Washington signed Strachan and Nikkel to their practice squad. 
• Commanders HC Dan Quinn said first-round QB Jayden Daniels (ankle) did not practice on Wednesday and will get treatment for his injury, via Nicki Jhabvala.

Cowboys

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones implied he isn’t pleased with the team’s offensive designs.

“The types of things that we all think we should be looking at is we’re designing bad plays, or we’re designing bad concepts,” he said via Clarence Hill Jr. “The facts are that there’s some of that but there’s also some of execution.” 

When asked about Jones’ comments, HC Mike McCarthy admitted they are not playing how they want and will go back to look at errors. 

“I talk to Jerry all the time. We’ve had time to go through the self-scout. I didn’t see the comments specifically. But I don’t think we have bad concepts and bad plays. But I’ll go back and check,” McCarthy said, via Jon Machota. “We’re not where we want to be. That’s clear, and that’s ultimately my responsibility and I’m fully aware of that. We’re very diligent. We’re on top of what we want to do.”

Eagles

Eagles WR DeVonta Smith finished with just two receptions for -2 yards in Week 7’s 28-3 win over the Giants. Eagles OC Kellen Moore admitted they went away from the passing game against New York but credited Smith for his effort as a blocker. 

“Yeah, those are never ideal,” Moore said, via PFT. “You know ‘Smitty’ is one of the premier players for us and sometimes unfortunately goofy things happen like this where he only ends up with the one catch for minus-2 yards because it was kind of a bubble screen. Obviously, we had different visions as we go into the game of getting him involved and sometimes it just doesn’t happen. But you know, he was in it the whole time which is a testament to him, just his run blocking ability. He made some excellent blocks downfield to spring our running backs on some plays.”

Moore is confident things will “correct itself” with Smith’s usage and swing back in the other direction. 

“Sometimes the ball doesn’t go his way,” Moore said. “We feel very comfortable and confident that things naturally will correct itself over the course of the next week or two, and he is certainly right there.”