NFC Notes: Jameis Winston, Derek Carr, Falcons, Panthers, Saints

Falcons

• Falcons HC Arthur Smith said LB Troy Andersen‘s arm/shoulder injury “didn’t look good” and added that while nothing is official yet his status for the remainder of the season does not look promising. The team officially placed him on injured reserve on Tuesday. (Tori McElhaney)

Panthers

• According to the Athletic’s Joe Person, Panthers LB Frankie Luvu is not expected to miss time with a hip pointer injury that sidelined him for a major chunk of the Week 3 loss to the Seahawks. 
• Luvu’s injury Sunday pushed Panthers LB Kamu Grugier-Hill into a much bigger role, as he was called on to play snaps on defense in addition to his role as a core special teams player: “That’s the hardest thing about being a dual guy is doing a full-coverage punt and then going straight into defense. But there’s no way around it. I’m not the only guy that does it. There’s a lot of guys that do it around the league.” (Person)
• Panthers HC Frank Reich raved about Grugier-Hill, who was one of the training camp standouts for the team and has carried things over into the regular season: “He’s everything you want in a player and a teammate. There’s no backdown in his game. He steps up. He stepped up filling the void of Shaq missing and he’s done it exceedingly well. And then still finding a way to contribute in other ways and then a leader on the team. That’s a good (linebacker) group.”

Saints

Despite the fact that he was feeling better after his injury, QB Derek Carr will miss time with backup QB Jameis Winston taking over for the time being. Several teammates weighed in on the situation including WR Chris Olave, TE Juwan Johnson, and defensive captain DE Cameron Jordan.

“It’s huge for us, he’s the leader of the offense,” Olave said of Carr, via Katherine Terrell of ESPN. “We definitely wanted him out there to end the game, it stings as it went, but to be able to figure out he’s not out as long as we thought he would be is huge for us. Just to be able to have his presence, even if he’s not on the field with us, that’s going to be huge. Just to get him back in a few weeks is going to be huge for us. We know what we can do. We played with [Winston] last year. He can run the offense well. We’re going to do everything we can to get open for whoever is back there.”

“I know everything is going to be OK,” Johnson said. “Derek’s a strong guy. Jameis has been in this offense before. We trust Jameis. He knows what he’s doing. He’s a great leader, and a great quarterback. There’s no falloff. That’s the biggest thing. Everybody trusts Jameis.”

“I know my guy [Carr] wants to win, wants to play,” Jordan added. “Hopefully it’s nothing that keeps him off the field. Jameis stepped up, we’ve got extreme confidence in Jameis and what he’s been able to do when he’s in command. It’s not like he’s in an unfamiliar offense here.”