NFC Notes: Dave Canales, Kirk Cousins, Falcons, Panthers, Saints

Falcons

Falcons owner Arthur Blank spoke out on the situation regarding QB Kirk Cousins, saying they are trying to balance what’s best for the franchise and Cousins. 

“I told (Cousins) that we will be as thoughtful and sensitive to him as we can be,” Blank said, via CBS Sports’ Jonathan Jones, “but we have a responsibility to the franchise — which we do. And he understood that, and he repeated that to me that he does understand. But he wanted to make himself clear on his own situation, which I thanked him for, and I understand, too.”

Panthers

Panthers HC Dave Canales said it’s great heading into the draft with the offensive line built up, so they can draft the best player available without having to reach for need at an important position group.

“There’s not a lot of worry on the offensive line, but the cool part is when we start to look at, and when we evaluate players in the draft and in free agency, we always evaluate them with our roster in mind,” Canales said, via the team’s website. “So when you look at the two-deep group at offensive line, we’re looking at those linemen and say, ‘OK, is this guy going to beat out Chandler? Is this guy going to beat out D-Lew or Rob Hunt? We have some good players to compare them to, so it just kind of makes us put our mind to really see who is this player that we’re getting. Not just not just the skill level but also the personality of the guy. Look at the room he’s coming into; this guy’s going to have to have some depth of character to be able to challenge the group that we put together, so, and that’s what I love. I love trying to build out rooms like that so that when we bring our rookies in or bring a free agent in, they hit the ground, and they’re like, I got work to do, and they feel like they’re in good company and just the competition it brings the whole thing.”

Canales added that LT Ickey Ekwonu is viewed within the organization as the blindside protector of the future.

“I think Ickey showed us he’s a dominant run blocker,” Canales said. “I think he showed us that he is very reliable in the past in pass protection. I think he’d be the first to tell you, cleaning up some hand placement things, some footwork stuff, those are all goals of his. But I think we’ve got our left tackle. I love playing with having Ickey over there and having T-Mo on the right side. I feel pretty good about just playing ball against pretty much anybody.”

The team could look to replace RT Taylor Moton, though Canales said that it isn’t at the top of their to-do list.

“He’s been steady Eddie here for a long time, so we’re counting on him doing that again,” Canales said of Moton. “I was so glad he came back in and finished with us in Atlanta, and I just look around the league, and I don’t see a lot of veteran guys battling to get back out on the field in a year where you’re out of the playoffs with three games left, and T-Mo wanted to be out there with his guys and finish the season, finish what he started. But he still plays really good football. He’s an excellent pass protector. He’s great on the front side of those runs. He moves people. Those things are not apparent. Like, we love the offensive line.”

Saints

Saints G Cesar Ruiz was expecting to be drafted in the first round, but admitted that he was surprised to end up in New Orleans.

“It was one of those things where it was like, I’m going in the first round and I’m going to be a first-round pick,” Ruiz said, via the team’s website. “You hear it, right, and it’s like, it sounds cool. It’s kind of like being a five-star in high school. ‘Oh, I’m a five-star.’ It’s cool, but it’s not really too much to it. It’s like, let’s see where this takes me. But it was definitely crazy because I wasn’t expecting the Saints to pick me, either, so that was another thing that added another level of shock factor to the whole situation.”

Ruiz added that he didn’t have a lot of pre-draft contact with the Saints prior to them drafting him.

“I had a workout scheduled with the Saints but it was canceled because of Covid,” Ruiz said. “I didn’t have any visits; everything was on Zoom. I didn’t do an interview with the Saints on Zoom, it was just at the Combine. And then when I got that call, that’s really why I was so shocked because that whole process – it was Covid, I was talking to pretty much every other team – and it was just all inside.”