NFC Notes: Nick Bosa, Joshua Dobbs, 49ers, Cardinals, Rams

49ers

49ers DE Nick Bosa feels like his body has “fully adapted to football” following Week 3’s Thursday Night win over the Giants after missing San Francisco’s offseason program.

“I think getting through the Thursday for me was big,” Bosa said, via 49ersWebZone. “Just getting thrown right into football, I was feeling it. But getting through that, being able to finish out Week 3, I think my body’s fully adapted to football now, and it’s going to be good from here.”

Cardinals

Cardinals QB Joshua Dobbs spoke about being traded from the Browns, describing that he was glad to finally have a chance to start.

“The details of it might have been weird and the logistics of it might’ve been crazy,” Dobbs said, via Darren Urban of the team’s official site. “But at the end of the day, it’s a chance to go play.”

Cardinals OC Drew Petzing, who was Dobbs’ quarterbacks coach in Cleveland last year, said the starting job wasn’t handed to Dobbs upon his arrival and he had to earn it. 

“Honestly, no,” Petzing said. “We’re going to put whoever gives us the best chance to win on the field. Certainly, I knew a little bit about him as a person and a player, and what he brought to the table, but I still believe in the other guys in that room. I was excited to see him win that opportunity, earn that opportunity, but I don’t think it was a predetermined conclusion.”

As for when Kyler Murray returns, Dobbs said he’ll be open to whatever role they give him. 

“I stay true to me,” Dobbs said. “I’m excited to see Kyler come back. I have watched his game from afar for a while. It’s cool to meet him and be in the same room as him and be around him. When [the return] happens, I control what I can control and absorb whatever role that puts me in and go from there. It’ll be OK. I’ll manage it, he’ll manage it, we’ll be fine.”

• The Cardinals worked out defensive backs Don Gardner, Tre Swilling, and Josh Thompson. (Aaron Wilson)

Rams

Rams HC Sean McVay recalled a 4th-and-5 situation with 6:09 left in Week 3’s loss to the Bengals where he considered going for it but felt they could lean on their defense at that point.

“I did,” McVay said, via ProFootballTalk. “Thought about it, just didn’t feel like it was the right thing. There were some struggles that we had on third down and so had confidence in our defense at that point and so that was kind of the thought process there.”

McVay added he tries to sense a “flow of the game” with playcalling. 

“A lot of it is, OK, what’s the inventory that you would have?” McVay said. “Where are you at in regards to who’s available? What’s your injury situation? So certain models and metrics that I definitely believe in, but I also think there’s a feel for the flow of the game and then there’s 22 moving parts. That’s a huge factor to me.”

Rams QB Matthew Stafford said he doesn’t have much input on situations like that but he trusts his coaches’ plans. 

“Yeah, at the moment with a 40-second play clock, it’s tough,” Stafford said. “I wish the mic was two-way but it’s only one way. Sometimes I wish I could say something back. . . . But no, in the heat of the moment, I leave it up to those guys. I trust those guys. Sean does a great job a lot of times on some of those third and longs or whatever it is in certain parts of the field, in certain situations in the game where he’s like, ‘Hey, we might have two downs here.’ And so that kind of helps train my process as far as, OK, if the underneath guy is open and we can get this thing to fourth and whatever we think is manageable at that point, I’m aggressive to that. So I leave it up to those guys and then I just try to play accordingly.”