Commanders
The Commanders acquired WR Deebo Samuel from the 49ers in March. Washington HC Dan Quinn has been impressed by Samuel’s speed in practice and remembers how difficult he was to tackle when going against him in previous years.
“Somewhere along the way, I’d forgotten until [he was] out here how fast he is,” Quinn said, via Zach Selby of the team’s site. “He was such a difficult person to tackle that you spent so much time, ‘How are you going to tackle this person?’”
Quinn said they had to devise a plan to deal with Samuel’s elusiveness and ability after the catch.
“And so, sometimes when you’re playing against the receiver you say, ‘Man, you better either get him at the line or you better be on top of him,’” Quinn said. “With him, so many times there were so many runs after catch plays that we had a tackling plan and how would you go about it?”
Quinn reiterated that Samuel’s speed has been making an impact.
“I can remember one time he just ran by somebody down the field on a deep ball and I was like, ‘Yeah, I forgot about that,’” Quinn said. “So…it didn’t surprise me, but it was maybe [that] I missed talking about it to that space because I was easily reminded, he’s one of the fastest players on the team.”
Eagles
Eagles RB Saquon Barkley feels that he is now entering his prime, and given his large usage in the team’s quest to win the Super Bowl, he consulted HC Nick Sirianni, RB coach Jemal Singleton, and Hall of Famers Marshall Faulk and Edgerrin James about how to spend his offseason.
“You’ve just got to be smarter, right? You have your moments where you go in there and you grind, you push it,” Barkley said, via Tim McManus of ESPN. “But the majority of those days is just mobility, conditioning, doing all the things to get your body in shape to perform at a high level. It was a lot of workload [last year], but my body feels great, so that’s the most important thing…It wasn’t hard because everyone I trust told me basically to sit my ass down for a little bit.”
“We kind of monitored everybody as we went,” Sirianni said. “We got a lot of good work in, Saquon got a lot of good work in and yeah, I’m pleased with how the offseason program has gone.”
“I feel really good,” Barkley noted in closing. “I feel like I’m entering my prime.”
Giants
Giants QB Russell Wilson is excited about the opportunity of playing in New York and potentially recreating the success he experienced on the field he won a Super Bowl.
“The opportunity here is so great,” Wilson said, via Around The NFL. “I don’t mind the lights. I don’t mind that part of it. I think the other part of it for me, most importantly of it all that, is I’ve been here before. When you walk into a stadium, into a locker room and you know, like my locker is the same locker I had when I won the Super Bowl. So, for me, when I see that, when I walk into the stadium I’m like, I’ve been here before. Not just been here but, like, we did this before. So, I fundamentally believe it’s possible again in terms of being successful again and being at the highest level. I think we got the right guys. There’s a lot of good pieces to it. And it’s a show.”
Wilson is excited about playing with WR Malik Nabers, who he said is a home run threat every time he touches the ball.
“Malik Nabers, man, dude’s a superstar,” Wilson said. “I was watching the film trying to make decisions, trying to get a clear understanding of who the players are, this and that. Obviously, you see the highlights and everything else, but when you watch every single catch and every single rep and every play, you get to see the kind of player he is. He’s dynamic. He touches the football, he gone.”
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