NFC Notes: Falcons, Panthers, Saints

Falcons

Falcons QB Matt Ryan had dedicated his energy this offseason to learning new HC Arthur Smith’s system, which is just a hop, skip and a jump away from the offense Ryan ran in 2015 and 2016 under former OC Kyle Shanahan. His QB coach those years was Matt LaFleur, who left that job for the offensive coordinator job in Tennessee. When he took the Packers head coaching job, Smith replaced him and put his own spin on that system, but it’s still one Ryan has a lot of familiarity with. 

“One-hundred percent. One-hundred percent,” Ryan said via Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer. “He already talks in that manner of, ‘Hey, we’re installing this, we used to teach off your cutups from back then there, but we’re going to teach off this that we used the last two years, but really it’s that same thing.’ And you’re like, ‘O.K., alright, cool, perfect, we can move on to the next one, I know that one.’ There’s definitely some of that going on.”

Ryan added it goes beyond just the Shanahan influence on Smith. 

“Every coordinator’s a little different, they’ve got a different flavor,” Ryan said. “To be honest with you, there’s more carryover [than just the Shanahan connection]. He worked with Mike Mularkey too in Tennessee, and Mike was my first coordinator. And Terry Robiskie was there, and Terry was our wide receivers coach for eight-plus years. There’s a mix of different parts of my career in all of it. Things I recognize from different spaces. I think everyone’s flavor on it is a little different. Matt’s very different in Green Bay than Kyle is in San Francisco now, and Sean [McVay] is different in L.A., so everybody kind of has their own flavor on it. And for sure Arthur Smith is a little different as well.” 

• ESPN held a mock trade exercise involving Falcons WR Julio Jones with beat reporters standing in for GMs. Atlanta received four offers from the Ravens, Patriots, 49ers and Titans. 
• Baltimore’s offer was its 2022 second-round pick and a 2022 fifth-round pick acquired from the Chiefs. It also had the Falcons eating $4 million of Jones’ $15.3 million base salary. 
• New England’s offer was a 2022 second-round pick and QB Jarrett Stidham. 
• San Francisco’s offer was a 2022 second-round pick and a 2023 fourth-round pick. 
• Tennessee’s offer was a 2022 third-round pick and LB Rashaan Evans, who played for Falcons DC Dean Pees when the latter was with the Titans. 
• Out of that group, ESPN’s Falcons beat reporter Michael Rothstein gave the 49ers’ offer a slight edge over the Titans’ package. 

Panthers

Panthers HC Matt Rhule discussed the differences in what they will be asking QB Sam Darnold to do compared to his past few seasons with the Jets. 

“He comes from a different system where they were kind of static. We’re more of a move up in the pocket, slide up in the pocket, throw on rhythm type of a team,” Rhule said via the Athletic’s Joe Person. “We really don’t want him holding the ball and letting it rip. We want him to play in progression, play in timing. So that’s new to him. But you can see a marked difference from the first day of Phase Two (last Monday) to now, in my perspective.”

Saints

Saints’ assistant OL coach and former OT Zach Strief believes that C Erik McCoy has become one of the best at the position in the NFL. He might keep 2020 first-round OL Cesar Ruiz at guard instead of center. 

He also says that the Saints’ have the best offensive tackles in football with LT Terron Armstead and RT Ryan Ramczyk.

“It’s going to be hard to beat him out,” Strief said, via Katherine Terrell of The Athletic. “I think he played fantastic last year. He had a huge jump. You’ve got to wait and see. Just like every year, the goal is always to get the best five that you can on the field, and figuring out where those guys best go is kind of on us as coaches. But he was outstanding, and we’ll just kind of see how it works itself out.”

“I think we have the best tackle tandem in football,” Strief said. “I think Erik McCoy, I think by the end of the year, he’s going to be considered one of, if not the top centers in football. I think there’s a great core there. You take a guy like Cesar, who has gobs of talent, not having an offseason his first year, all those things. He missed a bunch of camp time. I think that’s going to help all those guys, having that extra time in the offseason.”

• Strief mentioned that HC Sean Payton told him that this draft class has the highest average Wonderlic score of any NFL draft class ever. (Katherine Terrell)