NFC Notes: Saquon Barkley, Sam Howell, Commanders, Cowboys, Giants

Commanders

Commanders QB Sam Howell thinks his footwork has improved a lot during his brief time with new OC Eric Bieniemy and wants to be “coached hard” this offseason. 

“Yeah, I mean, I feel like I’m a lot better,” Howell said, via CommandersWire. “I want to be coached hard.”

Howell said Bieniemy has given him a lot of feedback following drills. 

“He’s [Bieniemy] just coaching. I go back there almost always after we finish like a run of plays, and we kind of just talk through the plays. He asked me what I saw, and if there’s one play he didn’t agree with my decision, he tells me. So we kind of go from there. But I just love being coached, and I love that he does that type of stuff because I always want feedback.”

• Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer mentions Commanders HC Ron Rivera has spent quite a bit of time telling people this offseason how much he believes in Howell as the starter going into 2023. 

Cowboys

There’s a long list of Cowboys players who are up for potential extensions this offseason, including WR CeeDee Lamb, CB Trevon Diggs, QB Dak Prescott, RB Tony Pollard, RT Terence Steele, and a few others. Cowboys EVP Stephen Jones said they’d love to knock out a few of those deals before training camp but it’s not imperative. 

“The timing has got to be right for those guys and it’s gotta be right for us,” Jones said via the Athletic’s Jon Machota. “Our goal would be to hopefully start to chip away at this. Our focus is also on winning in 2023. No specific order. It’s just kind of when opportunity arises. They gotta be motivated to want to do it. It seems like more and more guys want to wait, and I understand why, because usually the price goes up from one year to the next. People don’t seem to be as in that type of hurry, but if the opportunity is there we sure would like to get one, two, three of these guys signed. We’d love to do more than one.”

As far as other orders of business to address needs still on the roster, a lot of people are looking at running back given veteran Ezekiel Elliott remains available and the depth behind Pollard is a little questionable. But Jones highlighted kicker and cornerback as two areas they’re focusing on potential additions before training camp. Cowboys CB Jourdan Lewis is expected to starting training camp on the PUP list. 

“We always look to improve our football team,” Jones said, “but with Lewis looking pretty definitive that he’ll go on PUP, we could probably use a little depth at corner, just for numbers. Obviously a kicker and then we’ll see if we want to trade any guys out here after we’re done with these last couple of weeks. We obviously have another week here to look at this, but there is a chance we might trade some guys out, guys we decide that we don’t want to take to camp, we replace that guy with another guy in the same position.”

• ESPN’s Todd Archer notes long-term deals for Diggs and Lamb could come together during training camp.
• Diggs is entering the final year of his rookie contract while Lamb still has the fifth-year option in 2024, so Archer says there could be more urgency to work something out with Diggs.
• He adds he has a case to be the NFL’s highest-paid corner due to his interception totals but given the other deals the Cowboys need to think about, those negotiations could be tricky.

Giants

• The Athletic’s Dan Duggan thinks there’s still a good chance the Giants and RB Saquon Barkley figure out a contract extension before the July 17 deadline. He notes if New York was willing to pay $13 million a year for Barkley at one point, it stands to reason they like the idea of keeping him enough to not squeeze him too hard in negotiations even if they have the leverage to do so. 
• As for Barkley, Duggan points out if the guarantees on a contract offer are in the range of $22 million, the smart thing for him to do at this point is to take the deal. 
• Duggan mentions the Giants would like to have DL Leonard Williams and Dexter Lawrence playing in the range of 70-75 percent of the snaps instead of over 80 percent like last season, which is why they prioritized signing DL A’Shawn Robinson and Rakeem Nunez-Roches.
• Right now, Giants LB Micah McFadden seems to be working as the top backup behind LB Bobby Okereke, with veteran LB Jarrad Davis holding down the other spot while LB Darrian Beavers recovers from a torn ACL. Duggan expects Beavers to eventually win the other starting job next to Okereke in camp. 
• According to Josina Anderson, former Bills DC Leslie Frazier spent two days with the Packers and was scheduled to do the same with both the Commanders and Giants.