Buccaneers

Bucs WR Emeka Egbuka said that WR Mike Evans‘ departure is being felt by the organization but there’s multiple players in the receiver room that can and need to step up in his absence.

“Obviously, I think there’s a passing of the torch, and it needs to be received by someone,” Egbuka said, via PFT. “I think that our management — our G.M., our owners, and everything like that — they’ve done a great job of bringing guys in who are up to the task. So, obviously, they drafted me last year. But we have Chris Godwin, we have Jalen McMillan, and we have a bunch of guys who are ready to make an impact. We just drafted a wide receiver [Ted Hurst out of Georgia State], so we’re really excited to see what he can do. But obviously, we’re feeling the effects of Mike being gone. He’s so loved within the building, within the Tampa community. There’s nothing but love for him. There’s no hard feelings or anything. We all believe he’s going to do amazing things in San Francisco. But, yeah, there’s a little bit of a passing of the torch, and handoff, and I think everybody in our room is up to the task.”

Falcons

Falcons HC Kevin Stefanski said rookie WR Zachariah Branch is a player that the team can line up in multiple positions on offense.

“We’ve spent a lot of time with him, the coaches have, and he really has a great schematic fit, also a great personal fit for what we believe in and how hard he works,” Stefanski said, via Falcons Wire. “But just a player that you can really line up all over the field.”

Panthers

Panthers OL Joe Gilbert believes first-round OT Monroe Freeling‘s learning curve in the NFL will be shorter because of his time in Georgia’s program.

“You know guys that played for Georgia — there’s certain places, other colleges, you know that they’re gonna have a thumb on ’em,” Gilbert said, via The Athletic. “They’re gonna be pressured at practice, in games, the whole thing. That kinda just brings that kid a little bit farther along a little quicker.”

Panthers area scout Corey Fuller added that he watched Freeling in practice being grilled by Georgia HC Kirby Smart and he never wavered.

“Kirby has a great program down there, and he was just ripping (him),” Fuller said. “I felt like he was attacking Monroe the entire day. And Monroe, he never faded. He never went into his shell. He (rose) up to the challenge every single time. When I can go back and talk about somebody that loves the game, you can see that in Monroe.”

Playing against the best competition regularly in college and going through one of the best programs in player development in the country helped mitigate the team’s concerns about his lack of starting experience.

“If you look at what he did in his time at Georgia, playing against some of the best people there is in the country, the kid faced really good talent every single day,” Gilbert said. “The way that Georgia practices, they go after it every single day. That’s a credit to their coaching staff because that kid’s development really took a big turn from last year to this year because of the style of practice they have, the style of offense they have, the whole thing. So, to me, the 17 starts overall really wasn’t a concern.”

Freeling added that most of his experience was on the left side of the line but he’s comfortable playing right tackle too.

“My sophomore year I was primarily a swing tackle,” he said. “I was getting in every third series, just kind of switching in the middle of a series. It didn’t really matter. I was getting good experience. I probably have like 300 snaps at right tackle, 1,600 at left. Definitely a big difference, but I’m comfortable wherever.”

Freeling nailed the pre-draft process in a Zoom interview with the team, recognizing their blocking schemes and assignments. Gilbert added Freeling’s movement is fantastic but he will have to work on pass protection.

“You always get a different feel for their movement skills in person,” Gilbert said. “And he really surprised me on that, going over the bags — his change of direction. Then, the other part was in some pass pro things. I think that’s probably gonna be the one area where he’s gonna have to work on. He and I have already talked about a couple things, so he knows where we’re gonna have to go in that direction.”