NFC Rumors: Cardinals, Rams, Seahawks

Cardinals

Cardinals HC Kliff Kingsbury admits that their offense regressed last season when DeAndre Hopkins suffered his injury and he didn’t do well “schematically” thereafter to adjust. 

“When we lost Hop, I didn’t do a good job schematically adjusting some things that could have taken some pressure off Kyler, I think,” Kingsbury said, via Darren Urban of the team’s official site. “You lose a piece like that, you’ve got to find a way to be more creative. I’ve got to be better at that.”

Kingsbury believes they can find ways to get WR Rondale Moore “in space” and feels like they weren’t able to use A.J. Green as they initially hoped for. 

“There are ways to get him the football in space that might be a little different than a traditional receiver, but he is a great route runner,” Kingsbury said. “With Christian and A.J., we just weren’t able to get him out on the field as much as we would’ve liked.”

Cardinals GM Steve Keim feels fortunate to select Moore in the second round of the 2021 NFL Draft and admits they must allow some players to leave this offseason. 

“We took Rondale and they asked, ‘Why would they take another receiver?'” Keim said. “Then that depth was used. We are looking for guys that fit what we do and for sustainable success. If you are fortunate to have a good quarterback, unfortunately, you have to let good players walk from time to time (because of the salary cap).”

• ESPN’s Dan Graziano notes Cardinals WR Christian Kirk could be in line for a deal that pays $12 million a year in free agency. 

Rams

• The Athletic’s Jourdan Rodrigue believes the Rams could justify a pitch to QB Matthew Stafford of around $35 million per year, but the $45 million a year number that’s been floating around is absolutely in play now that he has won a Super Bowl.
• Rodrigue surveyed a number of people at the Combine and a few said they’d be surprised if Stafford’s deal was under $40 million a year. She adds that three or four years makes the most sense in terms of length, and that’s worth noting for the status of HC Sean McVay. In her opinion, working with Stafford is something McVay views as a big plus. 
• One “well-placed source” pointed out to Rodrigue that Stafford was very aware of the roster dynamics he entered into with the Rams, so he could potentially make it a point to his agency to take less and allow the team more money to budget elsewhere. 
• ESPN’s Dan Graziano thinks the Rams may be too tight against the cap to use the franchise tag on CB Darious Williams but he admits he doesn’t really know what the team will do. A tag for Williams would be $17.3 million. 
• ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler says the Rams and DT Aaron Donald are working on a new contract that should be done sooner rather than later and will make him the NFL’s highest-paid defensive player. 
• The Rams are expected to hire TCU RBs coach Ra’Shaad Samples to the same role in Los Angeles. (Matt Zenitz)

Seahawks

Seahawks HC Pete Carroll thinks the team needs to focus on defense, as they are far removed from their days as the Legion of Boom at this point.

“We’ve been a little bit arrogant over the years the way we play defense because we’ve been able to do it,” Carroll said, via Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times. “Just go ahead and play what we want to play. It’s not that time right now. It’s time to keep moving and keep growing. Remember how people just talked about all they do is play three-deep? You know, they don’t play anything else, they must be stupid? We were killing it for years, so we just [stayed with it]. The fact that our coordinators went all over the league on both sides of the ball, the offensive guys and the defensive guys, it got harder. It was hard on us. And so we stayed with it, but I just think as I’ve been pecking away at it for really like four years now, with stuff we’ve done subtly and we made a bigger shift last year than we had, to just continue to adjust. Just needed to make it a legitimate shift.”