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NFC Notes: Chris Godwin, Haason Reddick, Buccaneers, Panthers, Saints
Matthew Hinton-Imagn Images

Buccaneers

  • Per ESPN’s Jenna Laine, Tampa Bay WR Chris Godwin did not participate in any on-field work on Tuesday, but he rehabbed inside as he recovers from ankle surgery. 
  • Per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, new Buccaneers DE Haason Reddick returned for mandatory minicamp after not attending any OTAs. 
  • Reddick said him not taking part in Bucs OTAs and training on his own was about “getting everything buttoned up…I don’t want no distractions. When I come down here, I want to be able to play good football. I don’t want nobody worrying about, ‘Oh he got this going on…’” (Jenna Laine)
  • Buccaneers QB Baker Mayfield on Reddick: “Yeah, he’s pretty damn fast off the edge. He’s a great player. I know everybody wants to make a big deal about when he’s here and when he’s not, but there’s a reason he signed here. He wants to help us win.” (Greg Auman)
  • Mayfield has high hopes for their season and talked about getting further into the postseason: “It’s not just about a division title. It’s about making a Super Bowl, a deeper playoff run, that’s the attention to detail, the focus and strain it’s going to take for us to take it to the next level.” (Auman)
  • Tampa Bay HC Todd Bowles said UDFA DB J.J. Roberts is “very intriguing” because of his athleticism and versatility. (Auman)
  • Bucs RB Rachaad White has slimmed down to around 212 pounds after playing at 220 pounds last year. (Auman)
  • Regarding first-round WR Emeka Egbuka, Mayfield thinks they can move him around the formation easily because of his intelligence, which has allowed him to fully grasp the playbook at multiple spots. (Auman)
  • Buccaneers LT Tristan Wirfs didn’t participate in the first mandatory minicamp practice with a knee injury. Bowles called it precautionary and said he’ll be okay for training camp. (Laine)

Panthers

During the heat of the NBA Finals, Panthers HC Dave Canales explained the team’s love for basketball and how they’ve incorporated the championship into their daily meetings. He thinks seeing the competitive fire both teams play with can help them perfect their craft in the summer months. 

“The nature of competition, that’s what it is; how do you respond to adversity?” Canales said, via Darin Gantt of the team’s website. “We got the gift of watching the Pacers and OKC play and go back and forth, and you see the guys, you see the energy all the way through it. So I love seeing the response, and it just makes everything; you’ve got to be that much sharper. You’ve got to be that much cleaner in your technique, you know, and that’s where you start to separate the details, the fundamental execution, because of the talent is so good right now with our group that that that part can go back and forth so I love the challenge of it.”

Canales continued on the basketball front, and harped on the communication the Thunder and Pacers have. He wants his guys to learn from their constant talking and incorporate that into the football field to ensure everyone’s on the same page. 

“We’ve been following the NBA playoffs, and I think the thing that I keep talking to the guys about and pointing to is to look at the teams that play together, look at the teams that talk on the bench when they come off. There’s an exchange that happens when the coach addresses them. They get their full attention, and they make those micro-adjustments, and that’s great team play. Then, look at the teams that finish. Turnovers are just as important. They show the stats on TV, 21 points off turnovers versus 7. Those types of things matter to us too. . . .

“Great teams, these teams that play together and talk. That doesn’t mean they all made it to the championships, but the ones that did were in constant communication. And Halliburton and SGA (Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander), they’re constantly talking to guys about defense, where to be at when they got the ball, you know, so all those micro adjustments are so huge.”

Saints

  • Saints HC Kellen Moore on CB Alontae Taylor: “I love watching Alontae. He’s everything you want. He’s got juice every day. … I just feel like he’s going to become a really prominent leader for our team.” (Jeff Nowak)

This article first appeared on NFLTradeRumors.co and was syndicated with permission.

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