NFC Notes: Dre Greenlaw, Trey McBride, 49ers, Cardinals, Rams

49ers

The Broncos landed LB Dre Greenlaw as a free agent following his time with the 49ers. Sean Payton thinks Greenlaw wouldn’t have entered the open market if he had never suffered a torn Achilles. 

“We thought he was going to be highly sought after,” Payton said, via Matt Barrows of The Athletic. “I think (Greenlaw’s Achilles) injury may play a little part as to how he became a free agent, otherwise, he doesn’t ever hit the free-agent market. He’s someone whose contract would have been redone. I should say that nothing surprises you anymore, but we felt there would be (competition)… These guys are young players when you look at their pitch count and their age.”

49ers GM John Lynch said they “weren’t done” with Greenlaw, but he had a strong market. 

“We weren’t done with Dre, but we had to go through the process,” Lynch said. “And other teams were aggressive in their pursuit of him. And we were kind of — I guess forced to be somewhat reactive. Then, when the market was set, we just wanted to go have a conversation with our guy whom we have a lot of respect and love for. We had a good conversation with him. He made a decision. We respect that decision and are grateful to Dre for all the work he did for us. We wish him the best in Denver.”

Lynch mentioned that Dee Winters will have a chance to fill Greenlaw’s role. 

“He’s got to show that he can fill those shoes,” Lynch said. “That’s a high ask to go be Dre Greenlaw right away.

Cardinals

Cardinals TE Trey McBride received a big contract extension from the team and was emotional as he feels it was a long time coming after his breakthrough following an injury to starting TE Zach Ertz.

 “It was hard, I sat down with Drew (Petzing) when I first got here and he told me very straight up, ‘Man, you’re a great player. You can do everything we want, but you might not play as much as we want you to early on.’ He was really straightforward with me and I took it hard, man,” McBride admitted, via CardsWire.com. “But to push through that to break the barrier and get to reap the rewards is very special. Just put my head down and grinded and to be here with JG, Monti (Ossenfort), those guys, there’s no one better. It’s very, very special.”

“Happy tears for sure,” McBride added. “I kept my head down and I kept grinding. I kept working hard, and I knew my opportunity was going to come, and when it came, I knew I had to seize it. And I feel like that’s exactly what I did, and I just put the work in every day. I put the work in overtime, and to finally reap the rewards is exciting. It’s just crazy overwhelming. I knew Monti wanted me here. I knew I wanted to be here. I knew we were going to get something done. I didn’t know when it was going to get done, but just to get it done before OTAs, before training camp, so I can just kind of focus on football and have that sigh of relief that weight off my shoulders. I’m glad it got done when it got done and just eager, excited, all the emotions. I had no pressure when I was on a rookie deal, and I don’t expect any pressure now. I’m just going to continue to do what I’ve done, continue to put the work in, and everything really does take care of it. So, if you just do the right thing, you work hard, and everything will take care of itself. I think there’s still a lot out there. There’s still more in the tank. I’m young, I still feel like I’m scratching the surface of what I can do. This isn’t why you play. You play to win, and that’s the next thing for me. I want to win. We are on the warpath to win. Everything is trending in the right direction.”

Rams

Rams HC Sean McVay was asked bout WR TuTu Atwell and admitted that he has not “done a good enough job of utilizing him,” which is something he plans to change this season.

“When you look at the times when he’s been able to play, whether that be because some people were out or not, he has produced and he’s delivered, and we’re looking forward to seeing more of that ascension,” McVay said, via Pro Football Talk. “He’s going to be on the field a lot more, particularly in a lot of those three-receiver sets where, when he’s been on the field, he’s done a really good job. And like I said, if you project that over the course of 17 games, and hopefully you’re in the right to play afterwards, I think that’s going to be something that’s well worth the investment we made in him.”