Commanders
Commanders S Jeremy Reaves said he is “itching” to play again after suffering a season-ending knee injury in Week 5 of last year.
“I’m hungry, I wouldn’t say hungry, I’m starving, and I’m just anxious,” Reaves said, via CommandersWire. “I’ve been away from football since October, and it’s been itching at me.”
Reaves is using the adversity from last season as motivation going into 2024.
“Adversity builds character,” Reaves said. “I firmly believe that. I firmly believe that everything that happens to you builds you to be who you’re supposed to be.”
Cowboys
Cowboys G Zack Martin admitted that the 2024 season could be his last in the NFL.
“I’m not saying 100%, but I think it’s definitely in the realm of possibilities,” Martin said, via Around The NFL. “And that’s one thing I don’t want to do. For myself, I don’t want to be thinking, ‘Oh, this is it. This is it.’ I want to stay in the moment, and I want to play the best that I can play at this point and be the best right guard this team needs on a weekly basis. And then after the season, we’ll figure out what’s going on.”
Martin doesn’t believe that he played up to his personal standards in 2023, despite being named to another All-Pro team.
“I don’t think I played honestly up to my standard last year, really,” Martin said. “That’s another reason why I want to finish this year strong is I think I can play at a high level still. I think I may have come up a little bit short last year. I’ve got a little chip on my shoulder to get back to that consistent, kind of dominant player that I’ve been.”
Martin said his lack of training camp prep as he held out for a bump in pay in his contract contributed to a poor ramp up period.
“I’ve had a couple years — obviously, last year with the contract and a couple other years with some injury stuff I was dealing with during training camp — where you really don’t get those reps,” he said. “It’s hard to explain, but it kind of feels like you’re always playing catch up. I felt like last year, you roll in a couple weeks before the season, and you’re just trying to play catch up. ‘I need to get in the right conditioning shape. I need to get work with the guys I’m playing next to.’ I’m very excited to be able to go to training camp this year and get in my rhythm before the season starts.”
Eagles
Eagles QB Jalen Hurts said around “95 percent” of their offensive system is new under OC Kellen Moore and is processing all the changes.
“You get to a point where you feel, I’m going to be comfortable with this, I like this, that time comes when you can rep it, rep it, rep it later on, but right now it’s been a lot of new inventory in — the majority of it, probably 95 percent of it being new — and so it’s just been that process, and it’s been a fun process because you get to see what works for other people,” Hurts said, via Tim McManus of ESPN. “I think the goal coming in was to learn Kellen’s offense and to master it, and I think that’s been a process, and by the end of it, I want it to be mine and have it in my own way.”
Eagles WR DeVonta Smith said players will be moving around more frequently in their offense and have more options with what they do.
“I think it’s going to be great to get a new style of offense,” Smith said. “Let guys, not have more freedom, but be able to do things that we weren’t allowed to do [last year] — move guys around and things like that.”
Eagles HC Nick Sirianni has been impressed by how Hurts has learned the new scheme.
“I think he has done a really nice job of really grinding away to be a master at the offense and all the things that come with it,” Sirianni said.
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