{"id":857726,"date":"2026-04-06T23:12:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T23:12:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/857726\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T23:12:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T23:12:18","slug":"nfc-notes-lavonte-david-matt-ryan-buccaneers-falcons-saints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/857726\/","title":{"rendered":"NFC Notes: Lavonte David, Matt Ryan, Buccaneers, Falcons, Saints"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently retired Buccaneers LB Lavonte David<\/a> revealed the injuries that QB Baker Mayfield<\/a> was dealing with last season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe season\u2019s over now,\u00a0I can talk about it,\u201d David said, via JoeBucsFan.com<\/a>. \u201cMan, Baker was going through a lot, bro. Baker had a lot of injuries that you didn\u2019t expect a quarterback to play through. You know what I\u2019m saying? He had the oblique injury, he had the shoulder injury, he had a lot of things. You know, ankle injury, knee injury. . . . He was really trying to push through and really trying to be the player that we needed him to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Atlanta has one of the more interesting QB rooms in the league after signing Tua Tagovailoa<\/a> with Michael Penix<\/a> Jr. recovering from a partially torn ACL. Falcons president Matt Ryan<\/a> wants Penix to focus on his rehab and getting healthy, but admitted the timeline could impact his chances on winning the job.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think all of us view it as competition, and so, the most important thing for Michael right now, you know, coming off injury, is to attack the rehab and get his body in a position to go out there and play football,\u201d Ryan said, via SiriusXM NFL Radio<\/a>. \u201cAnd really he\u2019s done an incredible job of that. I mean, since I\u2019ve taken the job and the season had just ended at this point, he has been in there consistently getting after his rehab and being diligent about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then for Tua, like you mentioned, my player perspective with injuries is no matter how on schedule you are, you just don\u2019t know, until the end, you just don\u2019t know. We want Michael focused on that. But no plan, or not having depth at that spot doesn\u2019t put our football team in the best position to be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coming off a rookie year where he played 204 defensive snaps and 281 special teams snaps, Saints 2025 fourth-round LB Danny Stutsman<\/a> opened up on the culture change of going from Norman, Oklahoma, to New Orleans.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, when I got drafted to New Orleans, I really had no idea, you know, what New Orleans was like,\u201d Stutsman said, via General Booty\u2019s podcast<\/a>. \u201cYou know, I kind of went into it with an idea that it was like Oklahoma or Texas, which obviously, it\u2019s quite opposite from that. You know, I think I was a little shocked at first, but not in a bad way. I think New Orleans is a city that\u2019s one of a kind, filled with culture and incredible people that, you know, breathe, live, and sleep, you know, New Orleans Saints football, which is awesome to be a part of. Incredible, man. I\u2019ve had no complaints, you know, when it comes to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stutsman reflected on his time training with former NFL HC Jon Gruden before the draft, who has worked with plenty of Saints\u2019 staffers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing with Gruden was a, it was a cool experience, man. You know, he\u2019s a great offensive mind, you know, and he was a great head coach and so being out there was a little surreal. He does this thing. It\u2019s like \u2018knock on wood if you\u2019re with me,\u2019 you just have to bang on the table. And in New Orleans, they got a lot of guys that were with him in the Raiders. And I get there and like in the meetings where everyone\u2019s just knocking on wood.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking for the latest NFL Insider News & Rumors?<\/p>\n

Be sure to follow NFL Trade Rumors<\/a> on X.com<\/a>\u00a0and FACEBOOK<\/a>\u00a0for breaking NFL News and Rumors for all 32 teams!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Recently retired Buccaneers LB Lavonte David revealed the injuries that QB Baker Mayfield was dealing with last season.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431429,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2076],"tags":[1842,1448,7,3925,9195,2859,1879,896,55,2572,2571,6,397,3452],"class_list":{"0":"post-857726","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-orleans-saints","8":"tag-baker-mayfield","9":"tag-danny-stutsman","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-jon-gruden","12":"tag-lavonte-david","13":"tag-matt-ryan","14":"tag-michael-penix-jr","15":"tag-new-orleans","16":"tag-new-orleans-saints","17":"tag-neworleans","18":"tag-neworleanssaints","19":"tag-nfl","20":"tag-saints","21":"tag-tua-tagovailoa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116360298625723105","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857726","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=857726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=857726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=857726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=857726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}