Buccaneers

Buccaneers QB Baker Mayfield is no stranger to changing play-callers. His long and winding journey to start his career exposed him to a lot of change, and even now that he’s found a home in Tampa Bay, he’s going on his third play-caller in three years with the promotion of Josh Grizzard to replace Liam Coen, who replaced Dave Canales. 

“Yeah, but this one’s different,” Mayfield said via ESPN’s Dan Graziano. “I’m not meeting him for the first time. He was in all the meetings last year, and it also helps going into the same system. With the run game, he’s leaning on our offensive line coaches, which — huge, keeping those guys is a huge part of the run game’s success. So he’ll be motioning guys, … but when Grizz was in Miami it was, ‘How do they get Tyreek [ Hill] to not be doubled?’ So his background is how to motion, how to get certain looks out of the defense. Our third-down stuff last year, a lot of it was Grizz. He was our third-down pass game coordinator. So we trust in that. Just having the communication of knowing him before, we don’t have to get to know each other. We can kind of just say what we’re thinking.”

Buccaneers

The one player in training camp whom the Buccaneers can’t stop raving about is first-round WR Emeka Egbuka. The team thought highly enough of Egbuka to take him in the first round despite already having three great to solid starters. Since then, he’s done nothing but validate the pick. 

“His football IQ is far beyond a guy coming out of college,” Bucs HC Todd Bowles said via ESPN’s Dan Graziano. “It shows up as far as leverage, when he’s being doubled, when he has to stop, when he has to break a route off, when he has to block somebody and then move to another gap and take the next guy. It’s just the little things that you would think you have to teach the whole way, he’s been doing the whole time.”

“Stuff you can’t teach,” Bucs QB Baker Mayfield added. “Sometimes when receivers are running through routes and the ball is somewhat high but they don’t have to jump for it, some guys leave their feet. But he never leaves the ground. He stays grounded through the catch, so the potential for explosive plays with him is huge. Just the details of his routes, too, he learns from everything, watches other guys, understands the coverages. … Some things like that you can tell a rookie but he can’t exactly take it from the practice meeting to the field immediately, might have to do it a couple of times, but Emeka does it seamlessly.”

At this rate, the conversation has gone from how the Buccaneers will find a role for Egbuka to how they’ll keep him off the field. 

“He looks like he’s been in the league for 10 years,” GM Jason Licht summarized.

Panthers

Panthers HC Dave Canales revisited the benching of QB Bryce Young and how he earned the job back soon after.

“He continued to lead throughout that process,” Canales said, via Pro Football Talk. “He earned a lot of respect from his teammates, from me, that regardless of the situation — he didn’t agree with me on the decision not to play him — but he worked and he kept leading. He was showing me, ‘This is my team.’ And he was showing his teammates, ‘You’re my guys.’”

“He came back in and we started to grow together, and then building into that into the offseason, the leadership continued,” Young noted. “That was the most impressive part to me. It’s a real challenge, we’ve seen different situations, different scenarios on teams where a top pick is struggling and can get isolated from teammates. He just stepped up.”

• Canales doesn’t expect DL Derrick Brown to participate in Wednesday’s joint practice against the Browns with a bruised rib. (David Newton)
• Per Joe Person, Canales also said WR Hunter Renfrow and second-round OLB Nic Scourton are both doing great in their recovery from hamstring injuries, but the team wants to ensure they have ample time to return. 

Saints

The Saints picked up QB Tyler Shough in the second round of the 2025 NFL Draft. Shough refused to compare himself to other quarterbacks who competed in college at the same time he did, like the 49ers’ Brock Purdy, Jaguars’ Trevor Lawrence, or Jets’ Justin Fields. 

“Who knows who I would be or where I would be if everything had worked out [differently],” Shough said, via Katherine Terrell of ESPN. “It worked out the way it was supposed to because now I’m in [this] opportunity with a great team and kind of a fresh start with a new staff.”

Shough reflected on his starting his collegiate career at Oregon from 2018-2021, joining Texas Tech from 2021-2023, and finishing off with Louisville in 2024. 

“It was a lot of emotions because everything that [happened] … like, ‘Man, you stuck it out and you saw some good come out of it,’” Shough said. “It was just a lot of true ups and downs to where at that point you kind of understand, ‘Man, my time here is probably done at Texas Tech.’”

Shough said he was met with skepticism when deciding to transfer from Texas Tech. 

“You’ll get signed or picked up. You’re smart, you got a good arm, but you’re too old. You’re not going to increase your draft stock,” Shough said. 

• Per Nick Underhill, Saints sixth-round RB Devin Neal will miss a few weeks with a hamstring injury, while TE Juwan Johnson is day to day. 

The post NFC Notes: Emeka Egbuka, Baker Mayfield, Tyler Shough, Bryce Young, Buccaneers, Panthers, Saints appeared first on NFLTradeRumors.co.