Commanders
After losing to his former team, Commanders TE Zach Ertz mentioned the strong season Washington had with the wish that he was still young like some of his teammates who have the rest of their careers in front of them.
“Obviously, I’m going to be disappointed we didn’t win this one,” Ertz said, via CommandersWire.com. “I’ve only played in two of these NFC championship games in 12 years, so I understand how difficult it is to get here. But the thing I’ll take away is just the bond that I had, the guys that I met, playing with Jayden, you know, I wish I was 22 playing with him, had my whole career in front of me with them. So, it’s just….that’s tough. But overall, just what an amazing group of guys. Amazing coaching staff, DQ (Dan Quinn), I’ve loved every minute of being here with him. He just sets such a good foundation every day, so when times get tough, or things get tough, we just kept going back to our foundation. So I’ve loved every bit of it.”
Cowboys
During new HC Brian Schottenheimer‘s introductory press conference, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said his experience helped him make the decision to promote the former offensive coordinator.
“I know that Shotty is no stranger to these guys (players),” Jones explained, via NFL.com. “I know he’s no stranger to this building. I get my proverbial ass kicked over needing people in my comfort zone. Without this thing being about me in any way, if you don’t think I can’t operate out of my comfort zone, you’re so wrong it’s unbelievable. This is as big a risk as you can take. As big a risk as you can take. No head-coaching experience.”
“I have a good background in the makeup of what a coach is,” Jones continued. “To think that you can make a decision in an interview and if you didn’t and had never communicated or had a visit, I wouldn’t dare have an interview unless I talked to many, many people that knew that person, and had those kind of life experiences. I knew their story. “We know what osmosis is and we know what Shotty grew up around. … Frankly, from the standpoint of Shotty, those X hairs crossed. Shotty might never have been in our mirror, our view, had he not joined us to be with Mike as a consultant three years ago. … I’ve sat in a handful of meetings with Shotty. I’ve listened, I’ve watched him. I’ve watched him have deference to his head coach. I’ve watched him have deference to experienced guys like (defensive coordinator Mike) Zimmer. … I’ve watched him bite his lip sometimes when he didn’t necessarily agree with that direction. But he bit his lip, as his daddy would have told him to bite your lip.”
“Now let me share something with you, with all of that you’ve just heard him reference his osmosis. His family,” Jones said of Schottenheimer. “Anybody in this room who doesn’t believe that the apple doesn’t go far from the tree missed it someplace down the road, especially if there was an effort to make it that way. You go around to the countless number of coaches that Shotty has served on staff with and been around. The countless players. How often do you have someone that has 25 of years of working through the human relationship? How often do you have a chance to take advantage of all of that at 50 years old, which is a puppy. Yet he’s had 25 years being around the kind of things he’s going to have to draw on to be the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. I like his baggage. I like his baggage. I like that experience.”
Schottenheimer believes that his relationship with QB Dak Prescott can make all the difference when it comes to the team’s success.
“Iron sharpens iron. Dak and I have an incredible relationship, just like I have an incredible relationship with all these guys,” Schottenheimer said. “Dak and I know how to push each other’s buttons, we know how to have hard conversations. I laugh because I think about training camp last year, a ball got intercepted and we kind of had a thing in place where it was like if you throw an interception, you come out. And so I took Dak out and he’s like, ‘what?’ He pushed back. The competitor in him is special. And so I think he and I working together, along with the rest of the guys, putting together the system. There will be tweaks. There’s gonna be changes. But, he’s the type of worker that changes an entire organization and I think he and I see the game of football offensively very, very similar. We’ll have tons of communication moving forward on some of the thoughts we wanna do, whether it’s tempo or, you know, some of the different things we’re trying to do with our play-action passing game, the run game, things like that. He’s easy to talk to and love and respect him along with all those guys. We’re going to win. And we’re going to win a championship. Otherwise, why are we doing it?”
Eagles
Eagles pass rusher Brandon Graham said he’s taking it “one day at a time” with his injury and wouldn’t rule out being activated from injured reserve for the Super Bowl.
“I ain’t heard nothing, man,” Graham said, via Zach Berman of PHLY. “I’m just excited to be here, excited for this team, excited for this moment. I feel good. This has been the easiest injury, I’d say, out of the injuries I’ve had. Upper body stuff is a little bit easier. …. It’s just making sure I’m building muscle, I’m getting stronger, and doing the right things to where I’m not re-hurting it. We’ll see what the docs say, see what’s going on, and go from there.”
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