NFC Notes: Eagles, Giants, Washington

Eagles

Regarding Eagles DT Fletcher Cox saying that he “can’t be aggressive” in their system, DC Jonathan Gannon responded that the veteran defensive tackle makes some “good points” and is taking input from him and other players. 

“He’s got good points,” the DC said, via Kevin Patra of Around the NFL. “I need to do a better job of that with him. The key thing with that is together, player and coach, coach and player, how we do that and how we go about that. He’s had some very good ideas, as our other players have had good ideas, and then it’s up to us as the coaches to get that done and execute those things.”

As for the Eagles allowing opposing quarterbacks to complete 74.4 percent of their passes against them, Gannon admits they’ve struggled in pass defense. 

“It’s hard to play winning football when the ball doesn’t hit the ground,” Gannon said.

Gannon added that there are points when the Eagles’ defensive lineman must realign to less than ideal positions, which may be impacting their production. 

“There are times where they’re probably, no, they’re not ideally suited for that spot, but we try to within who’s playing, we try to make it to where we’re putting those guys in position, for the most part, to get into the skill set that they’re most comfortable with. And that’s just like any corner or linebacker or safety,” Gannon said. “Sometimes they get a little bit — some safeties want to play D-path all the time. Well, sometimes you’ve got to get in the box and play cover three. Some corners want to play man-to-man all the time. Well, sometimes with this call, because of what we’re trying to get done with that call, you’ve got to play cloud.”

Giants

Giants HC Joe Judge said he wants to retain S Jabrill Peppers for 2022 and believes he is “very important” to the organization. 

“Look, this guy is in a contract year, it’s something I’ve talked to him about directly,” Judge said, via ProFootballTalk. “He’s a guy that I value a lot in this program. I’d love to have this guy going forward, I’ve told him that directly. He’s been a very good leader for us. You can talk about him being local, that the Giants mean something to him. I think that’s very important. He’s a guy that loves football, he loves this organization, he loves this area. Those are things we talk about building as cornerstones and pillars of this program and he’s a very important part of our program.”

• Zack Rosenblatt notes that WR Kenny Golladay (knee), WR Kadarius Toney (ankle), and RB Saquon Barkley (ankle) seem unlikely to play in Week 8 given they worked with trainers in Thursday’s practice.
• Giants WR Sterling Shepard said he missed Week 7 after tweaking his hamstring while running a route but is “feeling good now.” (Zack Rosenblatt)

Washington

• The Athletic’s Rhiannon Walker mentions Washington DTs Matthew Ioannidis and Tim Settle are pending free agents and likely to find bigger deals elsewhere given Washington’s excess of riches on the defensive line. 
• Washington DC Jack Del Rio said he is not interested in the University of Southern California head coach job: “I’m going to channel some Mike Tomlin right now… I feel really good about being the defensive coordinator in the NFL and I like my job.” (John Keim)
• Washington OC Scott Turner believes the offense did well to pick up yards in Week 7 against the Packers, but they lacked the finishing touch to score: “We did move the ball, but that didn’t matter. … The point of the offense is to score and we did not do that. That cost our team and that’s a tough feeling.” (John Keim)