The NFC South and NFC West chatter this week came with coaches talking about stability, second chances and special teams repairs.
In San Francisco, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan made it clear he thinks defensive coordinator Raheem Morris belongs in the head-coaching conversation. Shanahan said Morris should get that opportunity, but he also sees him sticking around the 49ers for the long haul.
“ I see Raheem here for as long as I ‘ m here. And if I wasn’t, I’m sure they wouldn’t be getting rid of him either, ” Shanahan said, via Niners Wire.
“ Raheem’s so good of a coach, you’ve always got to be nervous you’ll lose him as a head coach. But, if that doesn’t happen I don’t plan on him ever leaving.
So, got to make sure that happens. “
Down in Arizona, first-year Cardinals head coach Mike LaFleur got a win over the Rams and did it with kicker Chad Ryland accounting for every point in the game. LaFleur praised the group’s response and said the team is still learning how to close out games the right way.
“These guys are a resilient group,” LaFleur said, via ESPN. “We’re learning how to play 60 minutes, and we hadn’t done that yet.
Some people might disagree with me, but there’s been times when we looked like a really good football team. We’ve got to finish better in the red zone, stuff like that, but I’m happy for these guys.
They put in a lot of work, they heard a lot of (stuff), and they just went to it.”
He also made it clear he didn’t exactly love the route the game took, even with the result in hand.
“I never want to see six kicks again unless they’re extra points,” LaFleur added. “But if you’re going to kick it, you might as well make it. And very happy for those guys.”
The Rams are still dealing with their own special teams issues after turning to kicker Blake Grupe, who was brought in after Harrison Mevis was injured. Grupe has now suffered an injury of his own after making his first start for Los Angeles, leaving the Rams back at square one.
Sean McVay said the team has to get more out of the position and pointed to the work that’s gone into trying to stabilize the operation.
“If it’s important enough to you, you’ll get it done,” McVay said, via ESPN. “Ultimately, we need better production, and that’s what we’re hoping to get [from] Blake.
There are so many different things that you’re trying to be able to fix, and then sometimes other problems open up.I felt like that field goal operation was trending in the right direction after all the work. I think we did some good things.
I liked the way that we were protecting. Obviously, we can’t give up the ‘swim sea’ area against a player like [Bills outside linebacker Greg] Rousseau in that moment [Monday] night.”
McVay said the answer now is to keep grinding and treat the setbacks as part of the process.
“You just have to lean in, and you have to be able to identify what are the problems? Let’s provide some tangible solutions, and let’s ultimately be able to bring it to life for the players,” McVay added.
“This isn’t the first time that we’ve had adversity and the first time that we’ve had some different things that I have to do a better job of. We’ll lean in.
We’ll go back to work. We’ll use these as growth opportunities.”
Grupe said the last several weeks have already been useful for him, even if the situation in Los Angeles has been far from smooth.
“I hit the ground running,” Grupe said. “We had a rainy game in Jacksonville, so it definitely wasn’t an easy first one, but we got out there, we got to work, got the ball rolling.
Those five weeks in Indy were seriously big for me, big for my career. There’s a lot that goes into special teams.
Guys got to cover. We got to put the ball where it’s supposed to be.
You’ve got to have elite specialists play to be elite on special teams. So I feel like I can do that.
There’s a lot of things that we can do on kickoff and bring some consistency in the field goal game.”
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For Arizona, the attention is less about any actual transaction than about what it says regarding a standout defender who has long been central to the franchise. The piece floated the Bills, Bengals and Jaguars as possible landing spots, but there is no report of a deal nearing completion, only the usual deadline buzz that can turn into something more if the right offer ever comes along. [Read more 🡒]