Buccaneers
Bucs OLB Haason Reddick said fellow OLB YaYa Diaby has been helping him pick up the playbook during team installs.
“He’s getting into that – I think it’s his third year now, he’s transitioning into that stage where you can see he’s becoming a vet,” Reddick said, via Bucs Wire. “You can see he’s starting to understand the game. To be honest, he’s been helping me out on a little bit of things as far as, ‘Look, you got this on this play, we got that on these,’ as far as the new installs. You can see that as young as he is, he’s transitioning into being a vet. He’s one of those guys that I was talking about, getting a workout in with a couple other young guys yesterday. He’s doing everything the right way. As long as he continues that, he’ll continue to progress and to go in the direction that he wants to go.“C
Falcons
Falcons GM Terry Fontenot looks a little more savvy for his shocking decision to draft QB Michael Penix Jr. in the top ten last year, saving Atlanta from being in the market for a quarterback this year when the options were poorer. Of course, it’s hard to disentangle the Penix selection from how things fell apart for the Falcons and veteran QB Kirk Cousins, but Fontenot continues to defend his decision, arguing he secured the future of their franchise.
“Think about it,” Fontenot commented via GoLongTD.com. “If we had that level of belief — if we believe this guy was a special franchise quarterback — and we don’t take him last year, and then we’re sitting here right now, how does that feel? We see him somewhere else and say, ‘We had a chance.’ He’s a football player. He’s transparent. He’s not trying to be something he isn’t. That’s why he’s a natural leader, because he’s just being himself and he’s out there competing. Mike wants to win, whether he is handing the ball off 40 times a game or we’re throwing the ball 40 times a game, that dude wants to come out with a win. So the intangible qualities, the physical traits, all those things really married up.”
Fontenot said last year only reinforced their confidence in Penix, even as he sat behind Cousins for most of the year and only got three starts toward the end as the Falcons unsuccessfully clawed for a playoff berth.
“Mike showed his maturity throughout the whole thing,” Fontenot said. “He was just a really supportive, good backup and he’d come out there and run the scout team. His maturity is what really stood out. And then he goes in there and he’s going in there raw. It’s not like he works with these guys constantly. It’s not like he had a whole offseason. But right away, he went in there and competed. He didn’t blink. He was prepared for those moments and went out and competed. All the maturity, the intangibles, the makeup, all those things that really sold us on him, you saw those things shine through — not just when he was playing at the end of the year, but the way he handled the in-season. Talk about ‘ignoring the noise.’ He’s the ultimate person that ignores the noise. All he did was show up and worked his tail off. He fits with the guys we drafted. These truly are championship-caliber mindsets.”
Panthers
Panthers HC Dave Canales fielded questions about the development of former Rams DL Bobby Brown III.
“Well, he’s been in the system—so he’s into the small parts, the nuances of this game,” Canales replied, via Alex Zietlow of The Charlotte Observer. “He had a mentor in A’Shawn [Robinson], early on in his career. So just having those guys feeding off each other, and then the size, the power and he’s also such an amazing athlete. He did a great job this spring. I think he put on seven or eight pounds of lean muscle mass. So, he’s been involved in what we’re doing, he’s working his tail off and he’s a great example to the young guys.”
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