NFC Notes: Jalen Carter, Marcus Mariota, Commanders, Cowboys, Eagles

Commanders

The Commanders brought in QB Marcus Mariota in free agency as a veteran presence for first-round QB Jayden Daniels. Mariota commented on Daniels’ first few days of practice and noted he is ready to do whatever they ask of him. 

“He looks good,” Mariota said, via the team’s YouTube. “I think he really moves well and throws the ball well. For a young guy that comes in, he seems to really like to command the offense, and I think that is really important.”

“I love ball; I love being around it. So, regardless of what my situation entails, I put a smile on my face, and I just love coming to work.”

Cowboys

New Cowboys DC Mike Zimmer has been taking time to learn his players during the early days of their offseason program.

“This last couple weeks when we go out here and we’re doing the (Phase 2 of the offseason program) stuff, it’s been a lot of fun to get out with the players and start to understand them and try to teach them as much as I can about not just the position but the other positions and why we do certain things,” Zimmer said, via Todd Archer of ESPN. “I think that’s been the best part.”

Cowboys assistant DL coach Greg Ellis, who played under Zimmer in 2000, called Zimmer a “tremendous teacher of the game.”

“I have tremendous respect for him, as when I played for him, because he’s a tremendous teacher of the game,” Ellis said. “He taught me a lot about the game. So to be on the other side of it with him, it’s something different for me.”

Ellis said Zimmer holds coaches accountable.

“He holds coaches to be responsible,” Ellis said. “I’ve been around him long enough to know whatever you tell him you’re going to do, he’s going to hold you to it. He’s not going to forget it.”

Eagles

Eagles DT Jalen Carter wants to come into his second season with better conditioning, especially considering that the team will be without retiring DT Fletcher Cox in 2024 meaning there will be big shoes to fill.

“Really, I’d like to be more conditioned than working on technique because we got all year for technique stuff,” Carter said, via Dave Zangaro of NBC Sports Philadelphia. “We work on technique every day in practice with our hands, working on pass rushes and stuff like that. But you really don’t work on conditioning a lot. But I did more conditioning than I did hand movement and some of the stuff like that.”

“My first year was OK,” Carter added. “It wasn’t how I wanted it to end. A lot of stuff that I seen on film is stuff I need to fix. It’s OK. We here now, and I’m ready to be better than last year.”