NFC Notes: Saquon Barkley, A.J. Brown, Nick Sirianni, Cowboys, Eagles, Giants

Cowboys

• Cowboys HC Mike McCarthy was asked if the team was interested in recently released RB Dalvin Cook: “Those are questions you are always visiting with and so forth. Obviously I have a tremendous amount of respect for him, played a number of games against (him) when Dalvin was in Minnesota. I have great respect for him.” (Jon Machota)

Eagles

Eagles HC Nick Sirianni isn’t worried about job security or if he has lost the team, noting that he is only focused on righting the ship and avoiding losses like the one suffered at the hands of the Cardinals.

“No, I don’t think about those things,” Sirianni said, via Pro Football Talk. “I try to stay where we are right now. How we play good football this week against the Giants, how do we fix some of the things that we got going on right now. That’s where my focus is and that’s where I’ll be obviously the rest of this week.”

Sirianni was also asked by reporters if he knows anything about WR A.J. Brown being upset or frustrated with the way things are going.

“Obviously I don’t want to speak for him,” Sirianni added. “But, you know, obviously when you have a dynamic playmaker like A.J., he’s going to want to change the game at all times and he’s capable of doing that at all times. And so again, I don’t want to speak for him, but obviously we’re all frustrated. We’re all frustrated right now, especially coming off that loss yesterday. And so you want to be able to have fun. You want to be able to do all these things, and you know, that football brings, but sometimes it’s hard to have fun and hard to find the enjoyment when you’re in a rut like we are. But he’s always going to want to — he’s always going to want to change the game because he knows he’s capable and that’s just him being the playmaker he is. I know this, and I said this to you guys on the record, off the record, all — everything, that there’s nobody that is as good of a teammate. There is nobody that’s as good of a person as A.J. and shoot, he’s one of our very best players and one of our best players since I’ve been here in the past three years. I can’t say enough good things about him. We’re all frustrated, I think and again, like I said, I don’t want to speak for him on anything.”

• When asked about Brown only getting one target in the second half, OC Brian Johnson responded their offense was kept off of the field and they need to “force him the ball” going forward: “We didn’t run a whole bunch of plays. He had one catch in the second half. I don’t remember exactly every single pass that we ran in the second half, but A.J. is a great player and we’ve got to force him the ball sometimes and make sure we get him going,” via Zach Berman. 
• Brown addressed the team in a meeting and apologized: “They shouldn’t have to answer questions on my behalf. I’m not just going to continue to compound the negative with negative so you guys can write more negative stuff. You guys watch the game, too. You guys already know. So that’s why I was like, nothing more than I can say. I’m not trying to make it worse than what it is. And then on top of that, everything that I do, if I say something, I do anything. I’m classified as a monster. Honestly the opposite. You saw my frustration on the field. It wasn’t about the play call. It wasn’t about none of that. It was about my guy getting banged up. We’re going to need (DeVonta Smith going forward.” (Zach Berman)

Giants

Giants RB Saquon Barkley reiterated that he wants to remain with the team for his career, but acknowledged that his desire to do so doesn’t do much in the grand scheme of things.

“I’ve mentioned before that I wanted to be a Giant for life,” Barkley said, via PFT. “That was a goal of mine when I got drafted. I wanted to leave a legacy here, but it’s out of my control. I truly have no say. It’s really up to those guys upstairs…Me sitting here saying I want to be a Giant for life like I did last year doesn’t help or doesn’t hurt, so I’ll just leave it up to those guys.”

Barkley admitted that a fresh start has crossed his mind, but that doesn’t necessarily mean with a different organization.

“Did a fresh start cross my mind? I guess anybody — when you look at the season, the way it went — that anybody would want a fresh start,” Barkley said. “I’m not saying somewhere else, just a clean slate. That’s how I look at it, to be honest. If I hit the open market, that’s God’s plan for me to get another opportunity and to continue to try to create a legacy for myself in my football career.”

• Giants WR Sterling Shepard says that this will likely be his last game with the team and will discuss his future with his family after the season. (Jordan Raanan)