NFC Notes: Kirk Cousins, Baker Mayfield, Buccaneers, Falcons, Panthers

Buccaneers

Buccaneers QB Baker Mayfield called their upcoming game against the Lions a potential “revenge game” for their NFC Championship game loss to Detroit. 

“Yeah, this is definitely one of those,” said Mayfield, via Scott Smith of the team’s site. “I mean, every week you have to bring your best stuff. At this level, if you don’t show up you can get beat any given week. This is one of those – on the road with a team who was in the NFC Championship, where we aspire to be, so it’s one of those – you said it, measuring sticks to great competition [and] see how our guys handle it early on. You know, it’s a long season but we can learn a lot from this one.”

Mayfield reiterated how playing the Lions once again is a “topic of conversation” around their locker room. 

“You can definitely sense it already, within our building, when you put up the personnel, the game records, the scouting report, all that and you talk about the atmosphere, the memories instantly pop up and our guys are ready,” said Mayfield. “You know, it’s obviously a topic of conversation of they ended our year and so [it’s] one that we’ve been looking forward to and it just so happens to be the one this week.”

Mayfield thinks they have good matchups around the field against Detroit. 

“For us, we’re excited about the matchups, but it comes down to us handling it,” said Mayfield. “Their mentality is always to be the most physical, so we have to be ready for that – be the more physical team [and] bring that early and often.”

Falcons

Atlanta QB Kirk Cousins had a rough debut in his first game back from a torn Achilles. Cousins shut down the idea that he has physical limitations with the injury and knows he has to play better for them to succeed.

“I feel like I can move and push as I normally would,” Cousins said, via ESPN’s Marc Raimondi.

“I got to play better, I got to operate better and I was probably at the center of it not being clean and crisp. “So, that frustrated me deeply, because I can place such an importance on that, in running the operation clean and crisp. And that’s what has to be better Monday.”

Falcons OC Zac Robinson echoed Cousins’ sentiment that he’s healthy and talked about their evolving offense.

“Certainly not concerned with Kirk’s mobility at all,” Robinson said. “Some of the run game and how we set it up, we’ll change those things week to week. We’re never married to one thing or the other. Those things will ever be evolving, based on the game plan of that week. But I certainly like the pistol. We did it a ton with the Rams last year, and it’s something that gives you great versatility across the board, so we’ll continue to find those spots to mix it in.”

Panthers

Panthers HC Dave Canales said they aren’t considering any changes at quarterback and will continue starting Bryce Young. 

“The best experience you can have is to be on the field, and to just live it,” Canales said, via Joseph Person of The Athletic. “He’s got 16 games from last year. He’s got another one under his belt. So we just keep building on experiences to lean on, lessons to learn, all those things. There’s no way to replace that.”

Canales said he has a lot of conversations with owner David Tepper and his wife, Nicole, who is Carolina’s chief administrative officer.

“These are people I want to make proud of what we’re doing here and what we’re building. It means a lot to me to make sure that I can connect with him, that I connect with Nicole,” Canales said. “To be able to talk about just the state of our organization, just following up on games. I look forward to that process. So we had some good time to connect after the game. Those are private conversations that I’ll keep to myself, but a lot of support.”

Canales said they have built things into their offensive system specifically for Young and it will “take time” to execute everything. 

“There’s things built in for Bryce to get us to the right play, to do things. He’s done a fantastic job with that,” Canales said. “I think those things take time. It takes games to just have those experiences, to identify the things you can attack. It’s something we certainly can continue to build.”