{"id":757124,"date":"2026-02-17T00:57:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T00:57:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/757124\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T00:57:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T00:57:19","slug":"nfc-notes-derek-carr-lavonte-david-buccaneers-falcons-saints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/757124\/","title":{"rendered":"NFC Notes: Derek Carr, Lavonte David, Buccaneers, Falcons, Saints"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Buccaneers LB <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/D\/DaviLa00.htm?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=nfltraderumors.co&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-16_pfr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Lavonte David<\/a> has spent his entire 14-year career in Tampa Bay and has missed two total games over the last four years. David admitted he is still taking time to decide whether he wants to return for his age-36 season, and said it will mostly come down to whether he still truly believes he\u2019s one of the best players on the field.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m just still thinking about it,\u201d David said, via<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/jimrome\/status\/2021349457757876617\" rel=\"nofollow\"> The Jim Rome Show<\/a>. \u201cIt was a long season. A long season, for me, personally. Just dealt with a lot of things and the way everything went. Just got to have a great, right mentality for me. \u2026 The great thing about it is the Bucs and me, we have great communication, so everything is open. We just talk to each other whenever each other is ready to make a deal, do something about it, but right now I\u2019m just kind of calming down, relaxing, getting my body right and getting myself in a mental place to be able to make a decision.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf I\u2019m not thinking I\u2019m the best out there on the field, there\u2019s no point in me going out there to play. But so far, so good. The trajectory is climbing, I\u2019m feeling pretty good, you know, physically, always, but mentally I just have to get there. And when I\u2019m there, I have to make sure I stay there to be able to take one whatever the season comes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>New Falcons HC Kevin Stefanski brought OC Tommy Rees with him to Atlanta after their time in Cleveland ended. Rees spoke clearly about their desire to work under center. He also discussed how he and Stefanski see football the same way and are a perfect match together because of their willingness to have uncomfortable conversations with one another.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are definite benefits of being under center,\u201d Rees said, via <a style=\"font-family: Verdana, BlinkMacSystemFont, -apple-system, &#039;Segoe UI&#039;, Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, &#039;Open Sans&#039;, &#039;Helvetica Neue&#039;, sans-serif;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7044604\/2026\/02\/16\/michael-penix-jr-progress-will-be-the-key-for-new-falcons-coordinator-tommy-rees\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Josh Kendall of The Athletic<\/a>. \u201cThat\u2019s been a huge part of the identity of Kevin going back in his career. It\u2019s been our identity as we worked together, and it\u2019s something that we believe in.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I left Alabama and went to Cleveland, I really went there to work for Kevin, and my opinion of him has only grown since that time,\u201d Rees said. \u201cWe see the game through a similar lens in terms of what we value. I am not afraid to challenge Kev on things, and Kev is not afraid to push back. In any healthy relationship, you have to have that back and forth. You can\u2019t have people who try to see eye-to-eye on everything. You can\u2019t have a ton of ego when you\u2019re putting together a game plan.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/mzenitz\/status\/2023045168166031577\" rel=\"nofollow\">Matt Zenitz<\/a> reports the Falcons are expected to hire Wisconsin WR coach Jordan Reid as assistant quarterbacks coach.<\/p>\n<p>Former Saints QB Derek Carr retired before the 2025 season due to significant rotator cuff injuries in his throwing arm. After a year off to fully recover, Carr said he would be open to a return but made it clear he wouldn\u2019t come back for anyone.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWould I do it? Yes. Would I do it for anybody? Absolutely not,\u201d Carr said, via his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=z7gX71CSxaI\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Home Grown podcast<\/a> with his brother <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/C\/CarrDa00.htm?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=nfltraderumors.co&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-16_pfr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">David Carr<\/a>. \u201cWould I do it. Absolutely, I would. I told you two things: I have to be healthy, and I\u2019d want a chance to win a Super Bowl. And obviously, that\u2019s a tough thing to find. That\u2019s hard to do. That\u2019s not easy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Looking for the latest NFL Insider News &amp; Rumors?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Be sure to follow <a style=\"color: #008000;\" href=\"https:\/\/nfltraderumors.co\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NFL Trade Rumors<\/a> on <a style=\"color: #008000;\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/nfltrade_rumors\/\" rel=\"nofollow\">X.com<\/a>\u00a0and <a style=\"color: #008000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/nfltraderumors\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">FACEBOOK<\/a>\u00a0for breaking NFL News and Rumors for all 32 teams!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Buccaneers LB Lavonte David has spent his entire 14-year career in Tampa Bay and has missed two total&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":757125,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2077],"tags":[211,7820,496,7,8427,8591,9195,6,704,250,2597,2596,26961],"class_list":{"0":"post-757124","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-buccaneers","8":"tag-buccaneers","9":"tag-david-carr","10":"tag-derek-carr","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-jordan-reid","13":"tag-kevin-stefanski","14":"tag-lavonte-david","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-tampa-bay","17":"tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","18":"tag-tampabay","19":"tag-tampabaybuccaneers","20":"tag-tommy-rees"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116083257884834057","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=757124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/757125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=757124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=757124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=757124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}