NFC Notes: Panthers, Matt Rhule, Saints, Jameis Winston

Panthers

Panthers HC Matt Rhule praised WR Laviska Shenault for his strong performance in Week 3.

“People in this room have kinda heard me talk—I think he was gonna give us a spark,” Rhule said of Shenault, via PanthersWire.com. “Laviska’s kinda a competitive guy. So that’s why we traded for him. He’s come far enough along that we feel like we have a feel for him. He was good, he had a great kickoff return. We’ll just continue to up his workload now that we’ve seen what he could truly do.”

Matt Rhule

• Jason La Canfora of the Washington Post writes there are a number of league sources who have worked with Panthers HC Matt Rhule who believe his next move will be to take a college job. La Canfora thinks it could happen before the end of this season. 
• La Canfora points out a number of coaches and executives maintain Rhule was eager and ready to take the head coaching job at LSU when it opened a year ago. 
• Regardless of the timing, Rhule is not expected to still be in Carolina in 2023. La Canfora says coaching agents have the Panthers pegged as the first job that will open and execs on other teams have similar doubts about Rhule’s chances of keeping this job: “Are they about to go on an eight-game winning streak? I’m still surprised it didn’t blow up last year.”

Saints

Saints HC Dennis Allen mentioned that he isn’t willing to make a change at quarterback and has faith in Jameis Winston.

“There are enough mistakes to go around that I don’t really want to go there,” Allen said, SaintsWire.com. “I feel confident with Jameis, certainly we all need to do better.”