Cowboys
After the Bears fired him midway through the 2024 season, the Cowboys brought back Matt Eberflus as the DC under newly promoted HC Brian Schottenheimer. Eberflus cited QB Dak Prescott‘s success as a rookie during his 2016 season in Dallas as a big reason he wanted to return.
“Really, to me, it was Dak Prescott,” Eberflus said, via The Doomsday Podcast. “When he was a rookie, we drafted him here, and what did he go, 9-1 the first 10 games?”
“I know what’s inside his heart and what kind of man he is and what kind of leader he is. So to me, that was a slam-dunk.”
Before Schottenheimer officially got the job, Eberflus said he heard nothing but good reviews about him when he asked around for opinions.
“I was asking around about him because I knew he was up for the job. I’ve got a really good couple of friends that are really good friends with him, and they just said, ‘Love him. What a great football mind. What a great guy. He’s going to be a great leader.’ And so I was all in at that point.”
Eagles
The Eagles’ defense goes into training camp needing to fill starting roles vacated by CB Darius Slay, S C.J. Gardner-Johnson, DE Josh Sweat, DE Brandon Graham and DE Milton Williams. Philadelphia DC Vic Fangio is hoping rookies like LB Jihaad Campbell, S Andrew Mukuba and DL Ty Robinson can make an impact, along with recent signees like DEs Josh Uche and Azeez Ojulari.
“Some of those guys in that second list have to become like those guys in the first list, and I don’t know how that’s going to turn out, but I look at us really basically the same one year to the next,” Fangio said, via Tim McManus of ESPN. “The names have changed. Hopefully, we’ll get the same results from these new guys that we got from a lot of the new guys last year.”
Eagles OLB Nolan Smith Jr. is also entering the third year of his career. He is focused on soaking up knowledge from Fangio this offseason.
“I don’t think Coach Vic knows but, man, he coached some of my favorite guys in the world,” Smith said. “Watching Von Miller in his defense made me want to be the person that I am today. Just relentless, like ‘Who is that guy? What does he do during the offseason? Why is he always at the ball?’ Coach Vic, watching him and how he molded those guys, it’s nothing for me to listen to him, to be coachable. Are you crazy? He coached guys that surpassed in the league, Super Bowl MVPs. And he’ll never talk about none of that, but you feel it.”
Giants
Paul Schwartz of the NY Post said that there were members of the Giants organization who preferred QB Jameis Winston over QB Russell Wilson.
“There is no doubt Wilson was not the apple of the Giants’ eye,” Schwartz wrote, via Giants Wire. “General manager Joe Schoen wanted to trade for Matthew Stafford, then preferred to sign Aaron Rodgers before moving onto the third choice, giving Wilson a one-year contract for $10.5 million, with incentives baked in that could double that money. The Giants entered this short-term commitment with their eyes wide open, quietly acknowledging there were warts on all the quarterback options and cognizant that Wilson was essentially run out of the building in Seattle, Denver and Pittsburgh before landing in New Jersey. There are those inside the franchise who preferred Jameis Winston to Wilson, in terms of how they came off in their visits before both signed with the Giants.”
- Pat Leonard of the New York Daily News notes that it’s caught the attention of some people around the league how Giants GM Joe Schoen has been careful about tying himself directly to first-round QB Jaxson Dart, even after trading up for him in this past year’s draft. Schoen and Daboll are viewed as being on thin ice going into this season but also not necessarily tied together, meaning the Giants could fire one and not the other.
- In an interview with Kay Adams, Schoen was asked about the perception that Daboll championed the pick and whether Dart was Schoen’s guy too. Schoen said the pick was “an organizational decision” and happened as the result of a “collaborative process.” He added: “When [the coaching staff is] convicted on a player and the scouting staff’s convicted on a player, typically you have the best chance for success in those situations.”
- Leonard also highlighted a quote from Schoen during the team’s behind-the-scenes draft documentary: “Nobody’s gonna remember a third-round pick if you’re right. So you guys are convicted in him. You believe in him. We did the process. You checked all the boxes. Let’s roll the dice.”
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