Cardinals

Cardinals HC Mike LaFleur commented on the absence of QB Jacoby Brissett and DE Josh Sweat from OTAs and noted that he isn’t reading too much into offers for Sweat.

“The few guys that weren’t out there that you guys probably saw today, very much we knew that they weren’t going to be here and a lot of it was planned ahead,” LaFleur said, via NFL.com. “Like I said, you’d be hard-pressed to see if Jacoby hasn’t done most of what we are doing physically,” LaFleur said. “It’s word association from that point and cadences and all that kind of stuff. The hardest thing to teach a player is the speed of the game — an NFL game, in general. He’s played a lot of ball, so, he’ll be just fine.”

“I don’t even read into the offers,” LaFleur noted. “I’m just excited about the fact that I don’t have to game plan against this guy. I got to know him when I first got this job. He’s a good dude. He goes about his process and he’s not the first guy to go about his process the way he is in terms of how he’s training and all that.”

Rams

Rams QB Matthew Stafford is likely tired of answering questions surrounding his mentorship of first-round QB Ty Simpson and refused to share any conversations he has with HC Sean McVay.

“I’m not going to get into what our conversation was I appreciate him talking with me about those things. We have constant dialogue and a great relationship, so I appreciate that,” Stafford said of his discussions with McVay, via Pro Football Talk. “I understand where the team’s coming from. Listen, I’m not 25 years old and I get that. We’re doing everything we can to be as good a football team as we can for now, for the future, for all of it.”

“My job, first and foremost, is to get myself and our team ready to play as best as I possibly can. He’s a part of that team. We’re in a unique position in that we play the same position, I have a ton of experience and he’s just now starting his journey as an NFL player,” Stafford added. “He’s a guy who asks questions. I’ve been trying to answer those as honestly and as thoroughly as I possibly can. I’m going to do everything I can to get this team ready to play, to win, but at the same time share some of the knowledge that I’ve gained throughout my career, because I wouldn’t be in the seat I am now, after a really good football season, if I didn’t have people helping me out along the way, so I’m happy to do that. He’s been a sponge. He’s looking to get better.”

Seahawks

Seahawks HC Mike Macdonald said the team coined the term “run it forward” as they want to continue improving and hope to remain among the league’s best.

“We’re using the term, we want to run it forward, ‘it’ meaning our process and who we are,” Macdonald said, via the team’s website. “I think this is going to be a conversation that we’re going to talk about consistently. I don’t think it’s a one-and-done type of conversation. Really, it’s just how we talk about, how we operate all the time. It’s something that we’re having conversations with our team and our units every day about who we want to be and how we want to do things, and this situation is no different. It’s really nothing more or less than that.”

Macdonald added that the team will continue to grow and evolve to ultimately reach the Super Bowl once again next year.

“I’ve thought a lot about that, and I think when you look at some of these high-performing teams that have been able to do it over a long period of time, I think the common thread that you find is a standard that you feel responsible to uphold on a daily basis, and part of that standard here is chasing –it’s a spirit of evolution and a spirit of moving forward all the time,” Macdonald said. “That’s where our minds are. But giving us the freedom to move forward and have the space to kind of make each kind of new phase of the year our own and unique to us. There’s a balance there, but again, I’ve just been really pleased with every day’s work, and haven’t sensed an ounce of complacency, and that’s been really positive.”

Macdonald is trying to walk the line between celebrating last year’s team and preparing to try to repeat it again this year.

“We don’t avoid it,” Macdonald said. “But it’s not really the top of mind. There’s necessary times to talk about it, like the ring ceremony. We’ll be partying that night and having a great time and celebrating that team and those people. But it’s not really in our focus right now. The way I phrase it to the team is, it’s something that could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity—hopefully it’s more than once in a lifetime for our team—but that’s a thing that happened that we can cherish and we should be proud of because of the amount of work that it took and all the things that go into winning a Super Bowl. We should be really proud of that. But I think the thing that we find the joy in is what we’ve created and the way of life, what we’re trying to do here on a daily basis. If you think about last year’s team, I think you guys would agree, the cool part about last year’s team was the team and the process and the shadow boxing and all the stuff that goes with trying to become a great team every day. Kind of put it in two different boxes where they don’t have to be enemies of one another.“