NFC Notes: Jake Ferguson, Anthony Lynn, Commanders, Cowboys, Giants

Commanders

New Commanders run game coordinator/RB coach Anthony Lynn spent the last two seasons with the 49ers, where the team had two runs to the NFC title game and nearly won a Super Bowl. He opted to join new HC Dan Quinn‘s staff in Washington without a clear promotion despite all the success in San Francisco.

“I love the leadership here; that’s what brought me here, Dan Quinn and Adam Peters and even the president Jason Wright,” Lynn said, via 106.7 The Fan. “We’ve talked about doing it together one day. [Quinn] went to the Falcons, and I went to the Chargers as head coaches, so it didn’t work out for us, but now we are here.”

• Lynn plans on getting the best out of RB Brian Robinson, Jr.: “I studied Brian coming out of Alabama. I know Brian very well and I like him. i know what his running style is and what he can do and areas where I can help him. He wants to be good.” (Grant Paulsen)

Cowboys

The Cowboys’ 2023 season came crashing down with an embarrassment at home in the wildcard round to the Packers. Despite Dallas being dominant at home all year long, the playoff game was over almost right away. Cowboys TE Jake Ferguson spoke on the loss and what went wrong.

“You know it’s tough to say,” Ferguson said, via Kevin Patra of NFL.com. “I think for me, it’s also the NFL, 32 of the best [teams] in the world are playing one sport against each other but at the same time I always like to think, ‘We’re the Dallas Cowboys, every team that’s going to play us is going to bring their all every single time.’ We’re not going to get anybody’s ‘We don’t have to bring that hard against them.’ They’re bringing their all against us. It’s a kill-or-be-killed mentality. We’ve just got to kill them first.”

Ferguson expects everyone on the roster, including QB Dak Prescott, to put the loss behind them. 

“I know Dak is ready for the next season, that’s all you can do,” Ferguson continued. “You can’t look back and you know, have any sort of just ‘Oh, I made a bad play, so we lost.’ No, it’s just on to the next, it’s over with, so we played that game, clock’s zero, it’s time to move on to the next week.

• The Cowboys hired former Commanders assistant DBs and nickel coach Cristian Garcia as defensive quality control coach, per Michael Gehlken. 

Giants

When asked about the possibility of the Giants trading up from No. 6 to No. 3 for a quarterback, NFL Draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah thinks it would cost them this year’s first-round pick, two second-round picks, along with a second-round pick in 2025. 

“I pulled up the chart and kind of ran the numbers of what it might look like if they were going to go from six to three,” Jeremiah said, via GiantsWire. “Adding in the fact that there’s a little bit of a premium you have to pay. So for the Giants to get up to the third pick, you’re talking about the sixth overall pick this year. You’re talking about your second-round pick, No. 39, this year, your second-round pick this year at 47, and next year’s (second).”

Jeremiah isn’t ruling out New York making a move up to three.

“So it really would cost you three 2s, two this year and one next year. It’s a steep price to pay. A little bit of a premium there. You could get up to three with the ammunition that they have and get that done,” Jeremiah said. “I would not rule that out. I know you have one more year of Daniel Jones before they could kind of get out of that contract, but I think that would be something that would be very much in play.”