NFC Notes: Tom Brady, Buccaneers, Falcons, Jimmy Garoppolo, Panthers

Buccaneers

Bucs QB Tom Brady said his shoulder felt fine and declared that he will play on Sunday.

“It feels great,” Brady said, via ESPN. “I’ll be there Sunday.”

Brady added that getting WR Mike Evans and WR Chris Godwin back will provide a major boost to the team’s offense.

“That’s important,” Brady said. “I think we are trying to get everyone out there so we can build on certain things and I think that when you have those guys out there, obviously there’s great players that are going to make a lot of plays. So Mike’s going to make a lot of plays, Chris is going to make plays. We just got to keep doing it. I think 2-2 is not where we want to be. Got to do a lot of things a lot better. The more you’re doing stuff together and working at things and going through the reps and practices and the games and live competition, the better you’re going to be,” Brady said. “I just played with a lot of guys over a long period of time. Here is only my third year with Mike and Chris especially, there’s other players that — Cam, Leonard. There’s a lot to learn, you know, it’s a tough sport. There’s a lot of coordination that goes into, you know, an offense and defense and special teams and getting everything right.”

Godwin echoed Brady’s comments and believes that having the full allotment of offensive weapons will allow the group to develop chemistry and cohesion.

“I think it’s tough whenever you’re trying to put together your offensive game plan whenever you don’t have everybody out there,” Godwin said. “Then you add on top of that, that we have a bunch of new faces, we got new receivers, new offensive line. It’s just tough. But…it’s a long season and I think it can be very easy for people to overreact early in the year. But I think the biggest thing for us is just continue to work to build throughout the season — that’s what we’ve done over the last couple of years. You know, it hasn’t always been sunshine, the rainbows, early in the year. We just kind of slowly get better and better and better. You can’t just build chemistry on one in one day or one game. It’s going to take some time. It’s guys being absent, like, not only in practice, but just from games. We’ve been banged up. On top of that, we’ve had new guys…You can’t manufacture chemistry. Like the only way you get it is to build it day in and day out. And it’s through making mistakes…you know, the good and bad times and understanding what Tom wants, what we like, what we’re looking for and just how it all meshes at the same time. And it’s going to take time and just, just patience. I tell the guys the same thing and we all understand that is going to take some time.”

Falcons

Falcons DT Grady Jarrett isn’t focused on his own personal game and instead is concentrated on the collective performance of the defense.

“I feel like I’m doing the best I can to be the best I can for my team,” Jarrett said, via the team’s official website. “I just want to make plays that are there and allow others to make plays when presented and affect the game. It’s a long season. I plan on getting a lot better as the season goes on. I’m focused on what’s ahead, you know? That’s all I can control, is what’s ahead and the effort I put in day in and day out and let the results take care of themselves. My main job, my main focus, is to be the example for my teammates about how we work and how we finish the day and how we perform.”

Jarrett said they need to come together as a team and perform as a unit.

“It takes everybody to be out there, doing their job,” Jarrett said. “From play calling to executing the play to making something happen, it takes everyone on defense. It feels good as a unit to do what we need to do to come out of that with a win. We want to continue to get better and build up this defense and this team so we can put a complete game together.”

Falcons HC Arthur Smith said the team is doing everything it can to move Jarrett around and continuously put him in a position to succeed.

“We’ve done a lot of things different. We have,” Smith said. “I don’t know how much teams have been paying attention to him, but we’ve done a lot of things differently. It’s a give-and-take. To put more context to it, there are a lot of things we’ve done differently with him. They’ve tried to adapt. He plays a lot of different spots for us. Certainly, he’s accounted for every play and that’s kind of the give-and-take of what you’re doing and as versatile as we try to play.”

Panthers

Regarding the 49ers looking to trade Jimmy Garoppolo over the offseason, the quarterback mentioned that the organization was talking to “a couple different teams” and that the Panthers were at the top of the list. 

“I think we were advancing with a couple different teams,” Garoppolo said, via 49ersWebZone. “Nothing obviously came to fruition. Yeah, they [the Panthers] were top of the list I would say — one of the top couple.”

Garoppolo reiterated that there were “multiple teams” showing interest but he’s glad to still be in San Francisco. 

“It was more my agents would talk to them, then my agents would talk to me — kind of be the middleman,” Garoppolo said. “But yeah, there were discussions with multiple teams, but I’m glad the way things worked out.”

• Multiple league sources tell Aaron Wilson of PFN that there have been “increasing communication” issues between Panthers HC Matt Rhule and OC Ben McAdoo before and during games this season.
• Panthers DC Phil Snow said S Myles Hartsfield will line up at safety and the nickel roles while S Jeremy Chinn is on injured reserve. (Augusta Stone)
• Panthers OC Ben McAdoo said they want to correct their issues with batted passes at the offensive line: “Each batted ball happens for its own reason. We are looking at everything (to correct it).” (Ellis L. Williams)
• Panthers WR Laviska Shenault (hamstring) said he expects to miss a couple of weeks with his injury. (Joe Person)

• Panthers HC Matt Rhule said WR Terrace Marshall has earned the chance to play in Week 5 regardless of who is available after having “three great practice weeks.” (Mike Kaye)