NFC Notes: Falcons, Panthers, Saints

Falcons

Falcons GM Thomas Dimitroff and HC Dan Quinn kept their jobs despite a 1-7 start to last season because they were able to turn it around and finish the year 6-2. However, the two don’t have the same margin for error in 2020, and Dimitroff pretty much made it clear they have a mandate from owner Arthur Blank to make the playoffs this year. 

“We need to be back in the playoffs,” Dimitroff said via the Athletic’s Jeff Schultz. “We’re a talented football team. We need to get back to where we know we can go. We’re a talented, confident football team, and that’s what’s expected. No question about it. Our owner has high expectations, as do I and Rich McKay and Dan Quinn.”

• Dimitroff firmly believes Falcons QB Matt Ryan can get Atlanta back to the Super Bowl: “We believe he can take us to a championship. We obviously paid him that way, continue to have him around here because he’s such an important part of the organization. It really doesn’t matter the rankings, how he is regarded outside of this building.” (Vaughn McClure)

Panthers

With massive transition on both sides of the ball, a mostly brand-new coaching staff with little NFL experience and a league-low percentage of snaps returning on the defensive side of the ball, the Panthers face a number of challenges in 2020. However, new Panthers HC Matt Rhule might be uniquely prepared among his colleagues to deal with those challenges. Rhule’s coaching background includes dealing with strict time requirements for college athletes and rebuilding programs like Temple and Baylor from scratch. 

“Every year, we’ve had to start a true freshman on defense, who are literally coming out of high school, straight from the prom, and all of a sudden he’s starting for you,” Rhule said via Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer. “You want to be complex, you want to have all kinds of things. But you also want your players to be ready to play and play fast. So we’d love OTAs for those freshmen. But they had to be ready to go. So being in a position where we’re gonna play first-year players and draftees, that’s something, as college guys, [OC Joe Brady and DC Phil Snow are] used to.”

• The Athletic’s Sheil Kapadia outlines six possible trades that could still happen this year, including the Panthers trading WR Curtis Samuel to the Packers for a fourth-round pick. 
• Kapadia says it makes sense for the Panthers to get what they can for Samuel as he’s in the last year of his rookie deal and potentially the fourth option in the passing game. 

Saints

The Saints didn’t have to pitch WR Emmanuel Sanders during free agency, Sanders came to them after seeing another opportunity to join a pass-happy offense with a Hall of Fame quarterback. The veteran broke out back in 2014 playing in both the slot and outside for the Broncos and QB Peyton Manning. Eventually, that’s the role he hopes to play in New Orleans. 

“I think right now, they’re just trying to get a feel for me,” Sanders said via the Athletic’s Katherine Terrell. “Yeah, they can watch the tape from ’14 and see how they could use me, but I think right now, they just want me to grasp the playbook at a specific position before they start moving me around and making my head swim, because it’s a lot of information that I’ve got to get.”

“I’m still trying to get acclimated with it and know how it’s supposed to be and how they want me to run the route while trying to add my flavor to it,” he added. “But that’s going to come. We’ve still got almost a month or so. I’m going to be digging in and hopefully within the next two weeks, I’ll know it and we’ll be rocking and rolling on a high level.”

• Saints RB Alvin Kamara revealed he “tore his knee” in Week 6 against the Jaguars last year and played through the injury the rest of the season without surgery. (Nick Underhill)
• Kamara says he’s not worried about his contract as he enters the final year of his rookie deal, and that when it comes, it comes. (Underhill)