NFC Notes: Saquon Barkley, Dan Quinn, Commanders, Cowboys, Eagles

Commanders

The Commanders have the number two overall pick in the upcoming draft, and most around the league feel they will take a QB. New HC Dan Quinn spoke on what he wants in a quarterback.

“I think number one, just a relentless ‘dawg’ competitor, and like that has to be at the top of the list because to play this position, there’s going to be highs and lows,” Quinn said, via Chick Hernandez of WUSA9. “You better have resilience. You better be able to really lock in when it gets really hard because that’s going to happen.”

Cowboys

The Cowboys have to fill a hole at LT after Tyron Smith ended up with the Jets this offseason. Many have speculated that OL Tyler Smith will take over and move from guard, but HC Mike McCarthy isn’t going to make a decision yet.

“Tyler Smith will take another step. We’ll keep him at guard right now, see how it unfolds, but I thought we took a big step,” McCarthy said, via Kevin Patra of NFL.com. “If you look at the makeup of our offensive line last year where our younger players (were) backups and got to play too. I mean, you can put Brock (Hoffman) in the same category; he’s been here and no one was as close to Tyler Biadasz as he was. So I think that’s a natural step for him to step in there and we’ll continue to grow. But we definitely do want to continue to add talent and depth to that room.”

“As of today. Let’s fill up the room, and then we’ll look at it. I mean, the goal’s always get the best five on the field, but we’ve had this conversation every year since I’ve been here. So when does that occur, you know? Just look at our training camp last year. You know, we didn’t have the five starters practice together until the week of the first game, so it would be nice to have all five of your guys that you feel are going to be starters practice throughout April, May, June and into training camp.”

Eagles

Eagles HC Nick Sirianni is confident that RB Saquon Barkley will fit well into their offensive system given he’s an experienced and talented running back. 

“Good players fit well into schemes. He’s obviously a really good player. We’re really excited to have him,” Sirianni said, via ProFootballTalk. “Guys like that, however you use them, they’re going to do a good job.”

Sirianni said they are taking a similar approach to building their system with Barkley to when they brought in WR A.J. Brown. 

“A couple of years ago when we added AJ, we did a lot of work on, ‘What does AJ do well? How can we use him?’ It’s been a similar process here with Saquon,” Sirianni said.