NFC Notes: Tom Brady, Buccaneers, Panthers, Saints

Buccaneers

• Buccaneers HC Todd Bowles couldn’t say whether Tom Brady‘s divorce has impacted him this season: “I can’t say for sure. You know Tom is a very private person. He does his job when he’s out here and he smiles a lot and that’s really all you can go by. I think everybody, no matter what profession, you go through some things, it’s how you handle it and come out of it. I’m sure he has something weighing on when he leaves work or everything. I don’t know how much. I guess that’s a question for him.” (Rick Stroud)

Panthers

Panthers QB P.J. Walker said he was never worried about getting cut in the offseason despite being fourth on the depth chart behind Sam Darnold, Baker Mayfield and third-round rookie Matt Corral. 

“The opportunity is gonna present itself,” Walker said, via Joseph Person. “Whether I was getting four reps at practice (or) five reps, those had to be the best four or five best reps I took throughout the day. And just staying after practice, as well, getting that extra work in, it helped.”

Panthers LB Shaq Thompson said that Walker has been a “leader” this season and has “never changed” despite his situation.

“We just respect P.J. as a person. He’s our brother. He’s a leader in here,” Thompson said. “And he never changed, regardless of his situation, regardless of how all the quarterbacks panned out. He always kept his energy high. He always kept his self-esteem high and his confidence high. That’s what we respect about P.J. He comes out here and works and we love him.”

Panthers’ interim HC Steve Wilks thinks Walker did well at reading coverages and defensive rotations in Week 7 against the Buccaneers. 

“You could really see his arm strength and the ball placement and those kind of things. You sometimes question, OK, he’s performing and doing it off (play) cards. Can he really sit there and see the (defensive) rotation and what we’re doing exactly?” Wilks said. “And to me, you saw that in the game this past week. The different looks that (Tampa Bay coach) Todd Bowles gives you, different pressures — I thought he did a great job in really getting us in the right call and making the right throws.”

• When asked if he’d be open to being traded, Panthers QB Baker Mayfield responded that he wants to continue playing in Carolina: “I want to be here.” (Person)

Saints

Saints RB Alvin Kamara said the team hasn’t been playing with the confidence and attitude that they’ve had in recent years. He admitted that when the team gets in a deficit they start panicking instead of attacking.

“Even when we were down, it was never like we were looking at the score,” Kamara said, via ESPN. “It was like, ‘Well, all right, s—, let’s go play football.’ We haven’t really been playing like that. It’s been…just of a little bit of a panic, a little bit of a, ‘Oh s—, we’re down.’ Like man, we don’t play like that. I still don’t have that kind of mentality.”

Kamara said the timing of his speech felt right coming off of a loss.

“You come out of a game you feel like you should have won, you kind of have some mistakes that cost us the game and you don’t feel good,” Kamara said. “It’s easy to kind of go in there, and it’s like, that quiet. That quiet in the locker room, waiting for somebody to say something. I feel like you have a lot of those moments, but I just felt compelled to say something, so I got what I had to get off and I left it at that.”

Kamara was quick to respond as to why he felt the need to give a speech to a team. He hopes that his efforts will reinvigorate the team and motivate them to play harder.

“Because! It was annoying. I’m sick of that. I’m not used to losing,” Kamara said. “Nothing in life when it comes to me, I think personally, says ‘loser.’ You know what I’m saying? Even though we’ve had…all these injuries and all that, I still feel like we can overcome. So when I feel like we might not be putting our best foot forward to do that, that’s when I get frustrated. And that’s when I’m like, ‘Alright, shoot…’ it does so much to lead by example, but sometimes people gotta say s—. So I felt like I had to say something…What I said, it wasn’t me talking at people. It was like, ‘Shoot, hold me accountable, too.’ If you don’t see me with that swag and that energy and that pride I’m talking about, then tell me and call me out. Because I’m going to do the same thing to everybody on the field. Because I know what it takes to be what we want to be. The past six years…we’ve been good. And we’ve been able to overcome it and we’ve been able to be a top offense in the league in these past couple of years. So that’s what I want to get back to. And just saying that I feel like, that kind of opened some eyes. Dudes know. People know. But sometimes you need a little wake up.”

Kamara said the team’s permanent switch to QB Andy Dalton may help provide stability, but added the team has what it needs to reach its ultimate goal, even if they no longer have QB Drew Brees.

“Everybody knew what [Drew Brees] was to this team, to this city. He’s gone,” Kamara said. “I’m going to be gone at some point. DA’s gonna be gone at some point. Cam Jordan, Demario Davis gonna be gone at some point. It don’t mean that football stops for the New Orleans Saints. It’s gonna keep going. Every year it’s gonna be an evolution. Just because 9 [Brees] isn’t here, that don’t really mean nothing…He’s not in there anymore. So it’s just different. The people in this locker room are the ones that have got to step up and lead and will this team to do what we want to do.“