NFC Notes: Trey Lance, 49ers, Cardinals, Eagles

49ers

When appearing on The Q With Quincy Avery, 49ers QB Trey Lance was asked about an Instagram post where he put an emoji of his fingers being crossed underneath a photo of Titans’ new GM Ran Carthon. The quarterback explained he was just being supportive of Carthon landing his job in Tennessee and it wasn’t an intimation about possibly looking to leave San Francisco. 

“Yeah, I never talked about it at all,” Lance said. “Trying to stay out of the media for it, but I go on Instagram, and I’ll look at my teammates’ stuff, the team stuff, stuff like that, stuff about my family, stuff like that. I don’t spend a whole lot of time [on social media], especially over this last year. It’s been great for me to just be off of social media. I’m not on Instagram, daily even. So, for me, I just want to support guys. This whole season was probably more of a 49ers fan page than anything. Like, just showing guys support. [WR Ray-Ray McCloud]’s got a cool outfit, [LB Azeez Al-Shaair]’s got a cool video, [LB] Fred [Warner], whatever it was, and then obviously the Ran stuff.”

Lance reiterated that he is happy for Carthon and is only focused on continuing his career with the 49ers. 

“So, me and Ran got really close over the last—I wouldn’t say super close—but we talked on the regular,” Lance said. “He would bring his boys in. I would hang out with his kids in the training room. So for me, it was huge. They were like a shining light. They come in and show me how many pushes they could do and stuff like that. So just getting to know someone’s family like that, I was super happy for him for the opportunity. So, yeah, the fingers crossed emoji is not like, ‘Man, I’m crossing my fingers I’m going to be a Tennessee Titan.’ I cross my fingers, man. I love it here. I don’t ever want to be anywhere else.”

Cardinals

Cardinals’ new HC Jonathan Gannon is stressing the importance of accountability to his players and creating a “winning behavior” around the locker room. 

“Player accountability is simply this: You have to define what winning behavior is and hold people to that standard,” Gannon said, via Darren Urban of the team’s site. “Accountability is not just a negative. It’s a positive too. When people do the right thing, that is winning behavior … as hard as we are going to be on our guys, we’re going to love ’em up even more. That’s how you win games. The ultimate accountability is not wanting to let your teammate down when you are going about your business.”

Cardinals TE Zach Ertz wants them to “eliminate distractions” going forward. 

“There were a lot of distractions, a lot of things taking away from the end goal,” Ertz said. “If you can eliminate distractions, get out of the media per se for a couple months and focus on being the best versions of ourselves, we’ll be in a better spot going into this year. It’s not the fault of anyone in particular. Everyone shares blame in that, the lack of success we had as a team this year. But at the end of the day, it’s in the past.”

Eagles

• According to Tom Pelissero, the NFL fined Eagles S C.J. Gardner-Johnson $14,111 for lowering his head to initiate contact with his helmet on a fourth-quarter play in the Super Bowl. 
• Pelissero notes that Gardner-Johnson wasn’t penalized on the play and his agent, Kevin Conner, confirmed he will appeal the fine.