NFC Notes: Eagles, Falcons, Julio Jones, Panthers

Eagles

Eagles’ G Brandon Brooks is 31-years-old and is coming off an Achilles’ tear, which is why he has been the subject of trade talk.

Brooks wishes that the Eagles would have approached him about the situation instead of having to find out through his mother.

“The only thing I wish about that, actually, was instead of hearing about it from my mom — my mom being like, ‘Where are we going?’ — it would be nice to get a phone call [from the Eagles] like, ‘Hey, this is what’s going on,'” Brooks said, via Tim McManus of ESPN. “Other than that, it’s a business, man. I never lose sight of that.”

Falcons

• According to Peter King, the Falcons are pushing hard to pay none of the future compensation owed to WR Julio Jones as part of a trade. However, King adds that inquiring teams want some salary relief.
• King says he’s skeptical of the report that the Falcons have a first-round pick on the table for Jones. One GM tells King of the report: “If Atlanta had that offer, they’d have made the deal and just said we’ll announce it next week.”
• A trusted source tells King that the Falcons would accept a “hard second-round pick” in 2022 for Jones with no obligations to pay any of the $38 million Jones is owed in the coming years. King considers this the “most logical outcome” for Atlanta and thinks they may already have a second-rounder on the table.
• King could see the Titans being the team who eventually steps up to get a deal done.

Panthers

Panthers QB Sam Darnold said he is settling in nicely to moving to Charlotte and being part of the Panthers organization.

“The adjustment here to Charlotte has been amazing,” Darnold said, via Sports Illustrated. “The people here are great, the food is great. All of my teammates and coaches have been awesome in terms of kind of showing me around the city and telling me where to go, where not to go as well.”

Darnold also downplayed their Week 1 matchup with his former team, saying it’s just like any other game.

“I think it’s a really good opportunity – a good opportunity for this team to go out and prove ourselves against a good opponent. For me as a competitor, I’m going to go out there and compete no matter who the opponent is, so that’s kind of my mindset on it.”