NFC Notes: Mike McCarthy, Cowboys, Eagles, Giants

Cowboys

Cowboys HC Mike McCarthy addressed speculation that former Saints HC Sean Payton could be the next head coach of the team he is currently at the helm of.

“It’s a narrative I don’t want to be a part of,” McCarthy told reporters, via CowboysWire.com.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones defended McCarthy but knows that it won’t be long until Payton finds a new job. 

“Sean Payton shouldn’t be ‘out there,’” Jones said. “That’s an injustice for him, the Cowboys, all of us. That’s just sheer pulling it out of the air. It’s well known we’re good friends, it’s well known that we think a lot of him as a coach, know him well, and all of those kinds of things. But in this case… he shouldn’t be a conversation piece. Mike has got an opportunity here to win a Super Bowl. And he’s got an opportunity to win other Super Bowls. That’s really the measurement of it.”

“You don’t want to waste one year on anyone that you don’t think would be triple-A in getting to coach them,” Jones added. “So if I didn’t think a lot of Mike McCarthy being able to coach our team to a Super Bowl, he wouldn’t be the coach today. It’s an eternity between right now and this time next year in our game, and I’m not trying to be dramatic. That’s what I should dwell on. That’s the way this game is structured, where our staff is in place for the year. Mike is not only here, but he’s in the best position, in my mind, to lead this team as a coach. He is very qualified to win a Super Bowl, and I will tell you he has the kind of qualities- in a person and individually- that I really want to work with. I know his players feel the very same way, and his coaching staff feels the same way.”

“I feel good about Mike,” Jones concluded. “And it shouldn’t be a part of a conversation right now as to where Mike is relative to rope or where he is relative to Sean Payton. That shouldn’t be there. I don’t have that there, anyplace in my mind.”

Eagles

• Jimmy Kempski of the Philly Voice mentions his understanding is that if Eagles DC Jonathan Gannon had gotten a head coaching job this offseason, Philadelphia would have leaned toward promoting DB coach Dennard Wilson to replace him.  

Giants

Former Alabama OL coach and current Texas OC Kyle Flood believes that T Evan Neal will have no problem adjusting to the NFL level with the New York Giants. 

“I think he can fit in just about anywhere,” Flood said recently on the Giants Huddle podcast. “He’s a very unique combination of size, flexibility, and explosion. I think that’s why he can play both. When you play guard, you really need to be a short area explosive player to win the line of scrimmage inside. Everything kind of happens faster in there than it does at tackle. But at tackle, you have to have the spatial awareness, you have to have the length, you have to have the ability to stop and start your body in space, and he does that really well, too. Left side, right side, he can play either side. Guard, tackle, he can be a really effective player I think at any of those four spots. I think the Giants will find that as they work with him through minicamp and training camp.”

“I do think, obviously, there will be a transition going into the NFL, there’s no question. Now you’re playing against the best players in the world, not just the best players in your conference, so there will certainly be a transition,” Flood added. “But he’ll make that transition really smooth because he has been preparing himself to be a professional athlete for a long time. I will say this, he is certainly maybe a little more reserved in how he will speak at times, but when he speaks in that locker room and in that position, I promise you that those other players will listen to him. They know it will come from the right place.”