NFC Notes: Terrance Ferguson, 49ers, Packers, Rams

49ers

The 49ers hired former Jets ST coordinator Brant Boyer following nine years with the Jets. Boyer spoke about his desire to bring joy and excitement to the concept of contributing on special teams. 

“I’m here to do the best job I can and create a culture that it shouldn’t be like punishment to play special teams,” Boyer said, via Lindsey Pallares of the team’s website. “I think teams around the league, that moniker comes out like, ‘Oh man, I don’t want to play special teams.’ It shouldn’t be like that. You know? That’s how I made a living. That’s how a lot of people make a living in this league. If you can create a culture that the guys know you give a damn about them, they’re going to play for you. That’s what I’m trying to do.”

San Francisco also brought in LS Jon Weeks, who is entering his age-39 season after 15 seasons with the Texans. Weeks has tremendous faith in K Jake Moody and believes some nagging injuries have held him back. 

“There isn’t a special teams coach in this league that didn’t have him rated number one coming out that I know of,” Weeks said. “He’s as talented of a kid as it gets. I think that the injury issue where he was fighting injuries going back and forth, I think that had a lot to do with it. I think that us bringing in Weeks is going to help. I think that if the kid gets his mind right, which I think he’s doing – he’s doing a hell of a job for us so far.”

Packers

Packers QB coach Sean Mannion, a former backup quarterback, was interviewing with the Bears and contacted Packers HC Matt LaFleur about a position on his staff.

“I told him, ‘Wow, that’s pretty good. I think you should come up to Green Bay right when you’re done with that interview,’” LaFleur said, via NY Times. “And I’m surprised that they let him out of the building. They tried to get him, but I guess we had more to offer … I really do think this guy’s going to have a bright future for us and certainly in the coaching profession. I love his past experience … I’ve always respected how he went about his process, how he prepared for games, how he helped Jared (Goff) in that situation, being a backup for us.”

Packers passing game coordinator Jason Vrable said that when he interviewed Mannion during the pre-draft process, his football acumen stood out.

“I actually interviewed him when I was in Buffalo to possibly draft him,” Vrable said. “I knew he was a coach’s kid and he talked about it in the interview, and from that first meeting, I knew he had a football mind. He was very intelligent on the board. His recall of the system was as good as anybody I’ve been around. Great coaches always love the behind-the-scenes work. So you talk about a guy who was here until two in the morning every single night last year doing the drawings, that was him. But it wasn’t work to him. He was just in there doing his job to the best of his ability, just like he would as a backup.”

Mannion said the biggest thing he plans to work on with QB Jordan Love is his footwork.

‘To me, it really starts with footwork,” Mannion said. “That’s something that all quarterbacks need to focus on, but I know really when I was first exposed to it was with Matt in L.A. in 2017. It was really a kind of foundational moment in my playing career. I got so much better from understanding how the footwork helps your accuracy. It helps your decision-making. It helps the timing of the play, so that’s really kind of the starting point … really with any quarterback, but Jordan in particular, we really just always want to have that point of emphasis at the forefront of our mind.”

Rams

Rams second-round TE Terrance Ferguson said HC Sean McVay brings a similar offense to what he ran with in college at Oregon. 

“I think a lot of things are similar with the offensive style (between Oregon and the Rams), with the motioning, but I’ll just say kind of the concepts, some of them might have a lot of carryover. We did a great job at Oregon of prepping these guys to learn a lot of offenses. I played for a couple OCs (offensive coordinators) and we had a lot of concepts in there for a college offense, so being able to carry that over to here has been really big for me,” Ferguson said, via Wyatt Miler of the team’s site.