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

Commanders

When asked about leading the league in passing yards, Commanders QB Sam Howell responded he doesn’t look into his personal stats and only wants to win games. 

“Honestly, I don’t really look at it a whole lot,” Howell said, via ProFootballTalk. “It doesn’t really mean much to me. Obviously, I want to go out there every single weekend, play well and give our team a chance to win. Obviously, we haven’t won enough games. We haven’t won the games that I feel like we should have won this season. So that’s a little bit disappointing, but I really don’t look too much into what I’m doing on a personal level. I look more into what we’re doing as a team and just how I can improve for this football team and how I can put this football team in better chances to win football games.”

Giants

Giants DC Wink Martindale downplayed the interaction between him and HC Brian Daboll last weekend.

“I don’t even know. We talk a lot throughout the game. Probably going into half, kind of some things we wanted to get worked on, things we want to do, but I have conversations with all those guys,” Daboll said, via Giants Wire. “No different. Normal stuff during a game.”

Martindale added that he and Daboll communicated about several different things during the game and the sideline incident was not a big deal.

“Dabs said something to me after the game about that and he and I talk all the time, but in those two situations, I talked to him about what happened because one thing about our defense, we don’t give up a whole lot of big passing plays and I credit the secondary to that and Rome (defensive backs coach Jerome Henderson) and we gave up some big plays in the passing game, which you all saw,” Martindale said. “So, I told him what happened on the coverages. That was it right before half. And then coming back out, he had just got done at that time talking to the trainers and we were talking about who wasn’t coming back for the third quarter during that time and that turned into whatever it turned into but there was nothing to it.”

Giants

• Sportskeeda’s Tony Pauline says that while Giants HC Brian Daboll and GM Joe Schoen should be safe, his league sources expect both OC Mike Kafka and DC Wink Martindale to be on the chopping block after a miserable season in New York. 
• In fact, Pauline cites people in Kafka’s camp who expect this to be his final season in New York, despite being a hot name on the coaching circuit as recently as this past offseason. 
• Giants RB Saquon Barkley doesn’t think “loyalty” to the organization pays off in contract negotiations with New York or other teams: “Loyalty means nothing. Loyalty, that don’t mean nothing. No matter how loyal, no matter how committed you are, it’s a business at the end of the day. That is something that I have learned. For me, the way I try to handle that, I try not to focus on that. I try my best not to think about it,” per Jordan Raanan. 
• Daboll said LB Bobby Okereke (hip) returned to Thursday’s practice, while DE Kayvon Thibodeaux and WR Jalin Hyatt have progressed to the next step of the concussion protocol, via Pat Leonard. 
• Giants officially ruled out CB Adoree’ Jackson (Concussion) and OT Evan Neal (Ankle) from Week 11, via Dan Salomone.