NFC Notes: Lions, Rams, Saints

Lions 

Lions DC Aaron Glenn called LB Alex Anzalone a “field general” and his a great understanding of their system.

“He’s the field general,” Glenn said, via Colton Pouncey of The Athletic. “He knows this defense like the back of his hand. … I would say that’s his strong point.”

Lions HC Dan Campbell said Anzalone is one of their team-captains and a “bell cow” for their defense. 

“Alex is one of our captains,” Campbell said. “He’s been a guy going on three years around here that those guys look up to and we rely on. He’s one of our guys. He’s a bell cow on defense.”

Lions QB Jared Goff thinks Anzalone is playing the “best I’ve ever seen” from him and is the “igniter” of their defense. 

“I’ve been lucky to play with him now for three years and seeing him grow, seeing him play as well as he is right now — I said it a few weeks ago — it’s the best I’ve ever seen him play,” Goff said. “I’ve played against him and with him now and he’s certainly the igniter over there on defense and he’s a hell of a leader, he’s a hell of a dude. (He) practices hard every day, comes to work with a smile on every day, no matter what. I think back to some of the hard times and he was always the guy with a good attitude, putting things on his shoulders and (he) deserves a lot a credit for how they’re playing right now.”

• Lions HC Dan Campbell said RB Jahmyr Gibbs (hamstring) is good to go for Week 7: “He looked pretty good yesterday,” per Kyle Meinke. 
• Campbell said they’ll need Gibbs to carry “the load” against the Ravens: “Certainly I think he’s going to need to take the load of (the work). We’re just going to have to see where he’s at. I’d like to say we’re going to be careful with him, but the reality is we need him,” per Dave Birkett. 

Rams

• Rams HC Sean McVay had high praise of RB Darrell Henderson after promoting him from the practice squad: “Darrell came back in, he’s a guy that’s going to be up and active this week. He’s done a great job of being able to quickly re-acclimate himself back to a lot of the things that we’ve done, he’s taking good care of himself in the meantime,” per Adam Schefter. 

Saints

Saints HC Dennis Allen said it was a staff decision to not use TE Jimmy Graham in the redzone.

“Look, it’s a staff decision in terms of what we do,” Allen said, via PFT. “So I think any time you’re not successful down there, you know, everybody’s gonna want to know why you didn’t do something else. And, look, valid question. We had a plan going in, and that was the plan.”