NFC Notes: Terry McLaurin, Commanders, Eagles, Giants

Commanders

• The Athletic’s Ben Standig writes that contract talks between the Commanders and WR Terry McLaurin have made little progress recently, per a source. 
• Given the way the wide receiver market has moved, league sources tell Standig a new deal for McLaurin should be north of $22 million a year.
• Standig thinks McLaurin has a reasonable case to match the $25 million per year the Eagles gave WR A.J. Brown, and even more so if 49ers WR Deebo Samuel and Seahawks WR D.K. Metcalf hit or come close to that mark.  
• He points out the Commanders could use back-to-back franchise tags to keep McLaurin in 2023 and 2024. That would be projected at around $20 million and $24 million fully guaranteed over the next two seasons for an average of $22 million a year. He then would have a shot at unrestricted free agency at 30 years old. 
• However, Standig admits taking that approach could alienate McLaurin, a team leader and one of their best players. It would also be more bad PR for a team perpetually awash in it. 

Eagles

Eagles WR A.J. Brown is new to the team but is expecting big things from second-year WR DeVonta Smith, who he also considers to be a No. 1 wide receiver on the team.

“In my opinion,” Brown told Zach Berman of The Athletic. “Smitty is a wide receiver one. It takes the pressure off the other guy. I expect Smitty to dominate. He can run every route in the route tree. I think the sky’s the limit for Smitty and I’m very excited for Year 2.”

“I’m a smaller guy, but I still have to use my hands when I release,” Smith added. “I take that from a guy like him.”

Giants

Giants OLB Oshane Ximines said that he’s excited for a fresh start with the new regime.

“I’m glad I have the opportunity to learn from all these new guys in the building. The last two years didn’t go how I wanted,” Ximines said, via Giants Wire. “You know it hurt. I didn’t even have a jersey sometimes, but it’s a business. You have to wear your big-boy pants every day, so I didn’t look for [pity]. I just tried to go hard in practice, because I’m living my dream and nobody can take that from me.”

Ximines is looking forward to once again starting over with a new coaching staff and proving that he can be a contributor.

“It’s my second coaching change, and I felt rejuvenated the last time, too,” Ximines said. “The past is the past. You can’t do anything about it. It doesn’t matter what situation you are in or where you are on the depth chart: Every day is an opportunity to show what you can do. When guys start to get away from that, that’s when they start to go backwards. There is going to be a lot of opportunity to share the cake, so I’m excited to see how it goes. There is a looser leash on you. You can just go create pressure, and that’s always fun.”

Giants HC Brian Daboll believes that everybody deserves an opportunity to prove themselves regardless of what they did or didn’t do in the past.

“You want to try to do it your way, be true to yourself, give the guys opportunities to be themselves, let them either get with the program or not get with the program,” Daboll said. “Sometimes it’s hard as a coach not to have any preconceived notions about players, staff, whoever it may be, because it’s such a small group. But I think everybody should be afforded that opportunity.”