NFC South Notes: Buccaneers, Falcons, Saints

Buccaneers

• Buccaneers HC Bruce Arians defended QB Jameis Winston, who threw two interceptions and lost a fumble game: “Jameis did not throw one damn interception that was his fault. His receivers let him down today. Guys stopped routes that were supposed to be going down the middle.” (Rick Stroud)

Falcons

Falcons owner Arthur Blank told reporters after Sunday’s loss that he is “extraordinarily disappointed” in how this season gone for them and he plans to take the “next couple of weeks” to evaluate HC Dan Quinn’s status with the team.

“I think it’s a fair question. Much like the coach just said, I’m extraordinarily disappointed in the season,” Blank said, via NFL.com. “Nobody would have anticipated 1-7 and the lack of consistency. Today was a prime example of that, down 24-0. If we could just play the second half, we would have won the game; but it doesn’t work that way. We’ll take the next couple of weeks during this bye period of time and evaluate where we are.

“Whatever decision we have to make will be made for the right reasons for the long term. We certainly have a lot of intelligence on this coaching staff here. We have three other head coaches, we’ve got three general managers in this building beyond Thomas [Dimitroff], actually four, including Rich McKay. The knowledge base is there, but the performance is not. And this is a performance-driven business, I understand that and they understand that as well. So, we’ll continue to look at everything we can and make the right decisions that we’re going to have to make. I’m not bashful about making those decisions.

“Well, we are going to do something. We’re going to continue to think really hard and evaluate everything that we can do as an owner and as a senior management team, and figure out if there’s anything that we can do to make some decisions, any earlier, any later, that would help the process, but we have no plans on making any changes right now.”

• According to the Athletic’s Jason Butt, Blank is leaning toward not firing HC Dan Quinn following this week’s game or next week’s bye. 

Saints

• Per ESPN’s Dianna Russini, Saints QB Drew Brees‘ thumb still isn’t fully healed and won’t be until three months after the initial injury.
• However, Brees wanted to return anyway because he’s healthy enough to play and no one is 100 percent at this point in the season.