NFL Notes: Eagles, Giants, Jaguars

Eagles

Eagles HC Doug Pederson was asked about the recent comments from former Giants HC Ben McAdoo, who questioned how Philadelphia would handle success.

Pederson responded by saying that there’s a point to what McAdoo said in that complacency can set in. However, Pederson has yet to see any signs of it.

“I think there’s a point there,” Pederson said, via NBC Philadelphia. “I mean, quite honestly, complacency can set in. You can skip an OTA, you can maybe skip a workout or whatever. But what I saw from our players was not that. Our players showed up for OTAs, they spent time getting themselves ready.

“I did my part to help take care of the veteran players who played a ton of snaps last fall. And our guys have kind of moved on from last season. They’re looking forward to this season. And it is my job to make sure they don’t get complacent and we stay hungry and there is an edge. And we’re going to get everybody’s best each week and that’s what we want. I think anybody that plays on Sunday wants to play the best.

“So now we’ve got the targets on our backs and we’re going to embrace that and get ready this training camp and we are going to try to defend. But at the same time, we’re going to take it one week at a time and build the season just like we did last year.”

Giants

Giants TE Evan Engram mentioned that having Odell Beckham Jr back and Eli Manning hopefully returning to his prior form along with the additions of LT Nate Solder and RB Saquon Barkley should help to really open up the offense this season.

“It’s going to open up a lot [for everyone],” Engram said, via the New York Post. “We have a lot of talent and it can be very tough for defenses [to match up with us].”

Former Giants HC Ben McAdoo said recently that he believes the Giants will win the NFC East.

“I’m glad he said it. It’s really realistic,” Engram said of McAdoo’s comments. “As competitors, that’s the goal, to go out and win games and win as many as you can.

“We’re not worried about last year. It’s a new year. We have a really good team.”

Jaguars

Jaguars QB Blake Bortles said that he supports the Tom Brady model of accepting more reasonable salaries to allow the team to continue to maintain and add depth.

“I think definitely the way the Tom has done it is the way to try to model,” Bortles said, via Sirius XM NFL Radio. “Having guys and putting pieces around him was definitely something. When you take up a ton of money you kind of limit your team and who they can help you out with and put around you. I’m not naive enough to say that we don’t need a run game. We also need a good defense, we need good receivers, we need all these pieces. You can’t play as a quarterback and do it yourself so I’m more than willing to take less money than somebody else might in my position to put good guys around us.”