NFC Notes: Shaq Leonard, Wink Martindale, Commanders, Eagles, Giants

Commanders

• ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports the Commanders hired former Bills’ secondary coach Jim Salgado to their defensive staff.

Eagles

When asked about his pitch to free-agent LB Shaquille Leonard, who he knows from his time on the Colts coaching staff, Eagles HC Nick Sirianni said their team’s success is reason enough for Leonard to join. 

“All I’ll ever do is just be honest with him and tell him what the situation is here, what the situation is in this building,” Sirianni said via Zach Berman. “I think the pitch is just the guys that we have in this building, and some of them he has a prior relationship, too. I want Shaq to make the decision that’s best for him. Because, again, when there is that prior relationship you want to make sure — and that’s what I said to him, ‘I just want you to make the best decision for you. Take all the information from both places and do what’s best for you.’ So, I’ve called him a bunch the last couple days, and, shoot, he’ll make the decision that’s best for him. I’m confident in that. He’s a good person.” 

• Eagles LB Zach Cunningham (hamstring) is expected to miss Week 13 and could miss multiple games. (Jeff McLane)

Giants

Giants CB Adoree Jackson’ weighed in on the saga of the reported friction between DC Wink Martindale and HC Brian Daboll, along with the possibility it could cause Martindale to leave at the end of the season. 

“I think losing a guy like Wink would be a huge blow,” Jackson said, via Pat Leonard of NY Daily News. “That’s why I don’t think he’ll do it. Because if you’re gonna do something like that, I don’t know, that’d be crazy … That’s like, let’s say you were a kid and you see your parents get into it and then they get a divorce. Then you’re sitting there like, ‘Damn, what the f— is going on?’ And that’s how I personally feel it would be — it’s not gonna happen — but if that situation were to happen, that’s how I would be like ‘What the hell is going on? Did we do something wrong? Is it us? Is it this? Is it that?’ And it [would be] too much confusion. That’s how I view it.”

“[Martindale] coaches well, but he also listens to everybody and listens to the things we may want to change throughout the week or even during the game, which I think is cool,” Jackson added. “And I feel like you can’t have somebody else coming in. It could be the same, but at the end of the day that’s like somebody saying you’re gonna have a new stepdad or a stepmom. But I want my daddy or momma. I don’t want no stepdad.” Jackson said he sees no sign of tension and “if that’s the case, they must need to get an Oscar or something. Good a– actors.”