NFC Notes: Tom Brady, Buccaneers, Falcons, Matt Rhule, Panthers, Saints

Buccaneers

• Buccaneers QB Tom Brady (shoulder) said he’s good to go for Week 5: “I’ll be there Sunday.” (Greg Auman)

Falcons

• ESPN’s Michael Rothstein notes Falcons TE Kyle Pitts (hamstring) did not practice on Thursday, his second straight missed practice. 

Panthers

Panthers HC Matt Rhule says his job status hasn’t come up in his weekly meetings with owner Dave Tepper. 

“I’m not gonna talk a lot about my conversations with Dave. But he wants to win like everybody else wants to win,” Rhule said via the Athletic’s Joe Person. “He’s a really good owner and a good man, and I’ll keep doing the best I can for him.”

Rhule’s name keeps coming up in connection with college openings, and there’s a lot of speculation that a return to the amateur ranks will be his next step at some point. 

“I’m not gonna talk about that,” Rhule said. “I’m the Carolina Panther head coach. That’s it.”

• PFF’s Doug Kyed lists some early names garnering buzz as potential head coaching candidates, including 49ers DC DeMeco Ryans and Eagles DC Jonathan Gannon. 
• He also mentions Dolphins OC Frank Smith as a dark horse candidate if teams want to keep plucking from the Shanahan tree. 
• Kyed points out with 10 first-year head coaches and the batch of second-year coaches doing well, this could be a slow coaching cycle in 2022. 
• ESPN’s Dan Graziano says if the Panthers do end up firing Rhule during the season, then secondary coach Steve Wilks is the top candidate to be named interim head coach. 

Saints

Saints HC Dennis Allen continues to field questions about the health of starting QB Jameis Winston and will have to answer even more about a potential quarterback controversy following the performance of QB Andy Dalton on Sunday.

“Well, I think the first thing we need to do is find out exactly where Jameis is health wise before we make any decisions, so I think that’s where we’re at right now,” Allen said, via Brett Martel of the Associated Press. “I don’t have complete information on that as we sit here today. Hopefully, we’ll get a better feel for exactly where Jameis is over the next 24 hours and then kind of see where we go from there.”

Dalton struggled in the first half but nearly led the Saints to a comeback win in a back-and-forth second half. 

“Overall I thought he operated the offense efficiently, particularly the way we played in the second half,” Allen said. “I thought he was pretty good once we were able to kind of get the run and the play-action going.”