NFC South

New Orleans Saints defensive tackle Nathan Shepherd was fined $11,817 by the NFL for unnecessary roughness during a 26-8 defeat at the hands of the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 8, per NFL Network's Tom Pelissero.

In the second quarter of the game, Shepherd wrapped up the right leg of Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert and twisted it around after he had already completed a pass.

Bradley Bozeman, Los Angeles' center, responded by shoving Shepherd into the ground. Both players were penalized for unnecessary roughness at the time.

Bozeman did not receive a fine, per Pelissero.

Saints head coach Dennis Allen told reporters on Monday that he didn't agree with accusations that Shepherd was intentionally attempting to injure Herbert.

"I think it's not accurate," Allen said, per ESPN's Katherine Terrell. "Here's a guy that's trying to wrap the quarterback up. He's on the ground, he has no idea whether the quarterback has the ball or not. He's just trying to bring the quarterback down to the ground. There was nothing malicious about that play."

"I went back and looked at that play again after seeing the comments and I don't agree with that," he added.

Bozeman didn't agree.

"It was probably one of the dirtier plays I've ever seen," Bozeman said after the game, via Terrell. "You protect your quarterback no matter what. And I think any of our offensive linemen that was in my position would've done the same thing."

#Chargers C Bradley Bozeman on Saints DL Nathan Shepherd's hit on QB Justin Herbert, "it was probably one of the dirtier plays I've ever seen."

Bozeman added, "Protect your quarterback no matter what." pic.twitter.com/YJbbOEDcRX

— Fernando Ramirez (@RealFRamirez) October 28, 2024

Shepherd finished with one tackle against the Chargers. In eight appearances this season, he's recorded 19 tackles and two tackles for loss.

As for Herbert, he finished 20-of-32 for 279 yards and two touchdowns without an interception during the victory over New Orleans. Even though he's averaging a career-low 206.1 passing yards per game this season, he's also completed 64.8 percent of his throws and recorded eight touchdowns while getting picked off once.

What a throw from Herbert, and what a catch for Reagor! 👏

📺: #NOvsLAC on FOX
📱: https://t.co/waVpO909ge pic.twitter.com/k310MOOVSu

— NFL (@NFL) October 27, 2024

Shepherd was able to avoid a suspension, but he still incurred a fine for his actions in Week 8.

Carolina Panthers quarterback Bryce Young may need to wait a bit before he is a true trade candidate.

Dianna Russini of The Athletic reported on Saturday that while the Panthers are "receiving calls" about the 23-year-old, the team is currently "not considering" moving Young and that others around the league believe Carolina could get better compensation in the offseason:

It's not a surprise the Carolina Panthers continue receiving multiple calls from teams interested in trading for former No. 1 overall pick Bryce Young. At this time, Carolina is not considering moving the quarterback, who is starting Sunday against the Saints. The Panthers were encouraged by his improvements and overall commitment to the team in his return to the field last week. I do expect the team will assess everything this offseason and make a decision on Young's future in Carolina. NFL executives around the league believe if Carolina decides to trade him they'll get a better deal by waiting until offseason anyways. As for the rest of the roster, teams believe Carolina is open to moving running back Miles Sanders and edge Jadeveon Clowney.

Young's rookie season was rough in 2023, as he threw for 2,877 yards with 11 touchdowns and 10 interceptions as the Panthers went 2-14 with him under center. He carried that negative momentum into his second season and was benched after the team's 0-2 start.

He played sparingly over the next several weeks before getting the start in Week 8 after Andy Dalton suffered a thumb injury. He went 24-of-37 for 224 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions in a 28-14 loss to the Denver Broncos and will hope to show some glimpses again in Week 9 against the New Orleans Saints.

Still, a change of scenery may be needed for the former No. 1 pick and his potential alone should give him some value on the trade market. However, he would likely not be much of an addition at this point in the season and a team looking to make a switch at the position for 2025 may look at him more favorably in the offseason.

The 2024 NFL trade deadline is Nov. 5.

New Orleans Saints quarterback Derek Carr is expected to play on Sunday against the Carolina Panthers, per NFL Network's Tom Pelissero.

Carr, who was sidelined for three games with an oblique injury, was not listed on Friday's Week 9 injury report.

Derek Carr (oblique) limited all week in practice, but he’s off the injury report and set to play Sunday vs. Carolina. https://t.co/2trBiTdYoa

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) November 1, 2024

The Saints are winless since Week 2 and went 0-3 with Spencer Rattler starting in Carr's place. The team is looking to snap a six-game losing streak, which marks the franchise's most consecutive losses since 2005, against the 1-7 Panthers.

Carr returned to practice on Wednesday for the first time since leaving a Week 5 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the fourth quarter. He later told reporters he believed he suffered the oblique injury while throwing an incomplete pass.

Prior to his injury Carr had completed 70.3 percent of his passes through five games, throwing for 989 yards, eight touchdowns and four interceptions. He added eight carries for 22 yards and a touchdown on the ground.

Carr's strongest stretch of the season came during the first two weeks, during which he passed for five touchdowns and was only picked off once in consecutive wins over the Panthers and Dallas Cowboys.

The Saints' offense has been unable to overcome the team's defensive struggles from Week 3 onward, leaving New Orleans facing a three-game losing streak even before Carr's injury.

The team's offense flagged further with Carr sidelined. The Saints were held to 45 total points and three touchdowns in three games without him, while Rattler competed 59.6 percent of his passes for 571 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions in three starts.

The Saints will now look to take advantage of the Panthers' own struggles on offense. Carolina has only scored more than 20 points twice this season while switching between Bryce Young and Andy Dalton under center, giving the New Orleans defense a chance for a bounce-back performance during Carr's return this weekend.

The Carolina Panthers are still gauging the market for quarterback Bryce Young, according to The Athletic's Dianna Russini.

Russini reported Thursday on her Scoop City podcast Carolina "is really just trying to figure out his value as I know that there are teams around the league right now interested to see if they can be the team to sort of revamp him and give him some life."

Young is set to make his second straight start in Week 9 against the New Orleans Saints. While Andy Dalton was a full participant in practice Wednesday, head coach Dave Canales confirmed he's not making another QB change right now.

It was a mixed bag for Young in his first start after getting benched in September. He went 24-of-37 for 224 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions in a 28-14 loss to the Denver Broncos.

The Charlotte Observer's Mike Kaye posited that the 2023 No. 1 overall pick "didn't make flashy plays" and "didn't elevate the players around him."

"While the Panthers didn't publicly paint this as a redemption outing for Young, his performance probably wasn't good enough to push him back into the lineup when Andy Dalton recovers from his thumb injury," he wrote.

With the Nov. 5 trade deadline fast approaching, the Panthers have an incentive to get Young onto the field. If he performs reasonably well this Sunday, it could be the final push an interested suitor needs to make a compelling offer.

And at this point, there isn't a ton of downside for Carolina. Young's value can't much lower, while the 1-7 Panthers are staring at another lost season.

Even though Carolina Panthers quarterback Bryce Young did have some drawbacks as a prospect leading up to the 2023 NFL draft, his on-field intelligence really pushed him over the top for a lot of teams.

On the latest episode of the Scoop City podcast (starts at 30:10 mark), The Athletic's Dane Brugler said he was told by one NFL general manager that Young was "genius-level on the whiteboard" during the pre-draft process.

As part of the draft process, teams will bring in a player to go over different plays on a whiteboard to see how they process the information.

While there is value to this type of testing, it's also possible for teams to influence the outcome if they really like a player. Patrick Mahomes said that he was given the answers to the test put together by the Kansas City Chiefs by offensive coordinator Matt Nagy the night before he met with Andy Reid in 2017.

"If y'all let me go 12 or below I'm gonna get drafted by someone else"

These @PatrickMahomes draft stories are mind-blowing 🤯

THE PATRICK MAHOMES EPISODE with @JasonKelce & @tkelce is out NOW: https://t.co/ZlYmHA5kwB pic.twitter.com/sOW0iLmA6I

— New Heights (@newheightshow) December 1, 2022

Stories about Young's intelligence and testing ability were frequently discussed in the lead up to the draft. He reportedly had the highest S2 cognition score of all the quarterbacks in the 2023 draft.

Despite the concerns about Young's size, both his height and weight, the Panthers bet on his intelligence and success in a high-pressure environment at Alabama to make him the No. 1 pick.

While it's still very early in Young's career, it's hard not to call the Panthers' decision a mistake when C.J. Stroud was picked second by the Houston Texans. Carolina's trade up to get the top choice from the Chicago Bears also wound up costing them the No. 1 pick in 2024 and the opportunity to select Caleb Williams.

Young hasn't been helped by the situation around him in Carolina. The Panthers are off to a 1-7 start this season after going 2-15 in 2023. He has thrown for 3,400 yards, 13 touchdowns and 15 interceptions in 21 games.

Until the Panthers put a better roster around Young—or trade him to another club that believes they could maximize his talent—it's hard to see how things are going to get better for him at this point.

The New Orleans Saints could use some saving after six losses in a row, but quarterback Derek Carr said that isn't his job as he prepares to return from his own three-game absence because of an oblique injury.

"I am no savior," he said Wednesday ahead of Sunday's game against the Carolina Panthers, per ESPN's Katherine Terrell. "There's only been one of those and, that is not me. I am here to be a great leader and to be a great teammate and to do my job the best of my ability. And do I feel confident in what I can do? Absolutely.

"I feel confident in what I can do. I feel confident in what I can bring to our team. And that's exciting, right? But to save us or anything like that, that's not me, I'm going to come in and do what my guys expect me to do. Bring energy, bring effort, be a great teammate. Encourage our guys, get everybody on the same page, lock in the details, hold each other accountable."

Carr exited the team's Week 5 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs and then missed losses to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Denver Broncos and Los Angeles Chargers.

New Orleans' 2-0 start seems like a completely different season at this point, as the offense managed a grand total of three touchdowns in the three games its quarterback missed. What once looked like a potential playoff contender from the NFC South is now a team that is just one game ahead of the 1-7 Panthers.

A head-to-head loss to Carolina would all but signal an end to any hopes at all for the remainder of the 2024 campaign.

The four-time Pro Bowler may not be a savior, but his return is a welcome step in the right direction for a team that desperately needs to take one. He completed 70.3 percent of his passes for 989 yards, eight touchdowns and four interceptions prior to his injury and will look to return to form.

Playing the Panthers should help him do just that, as he went 19-of-23 for 200 yards, three touchdowns and zero interceptions in the season-opening win over Carolina.

This could be something of a get-right stretch for the Saints, as they play the Panthers, Atlanta Falcons, Cleveland Browns, Los Angeles Rams and New York Giants in the next five games. The Falcons are the only team from that group that doesn't have a losing record.

Carr could be timing his return just right if New Orleans is going to turn things around this season.

Carolina Panthers quarterback Bryce Young will get his second straight start during Sunday's Week 9 matchup with the visiting New Orleans Saints, head coach Dave Canales told reporters on Wednesday.

Andy Dalton is "progressing" from the thumb injury he suffered during a car crash last week and is expected to serve as backup, Canales said.

The Panthers plan to start QB Bryce Young for the second straight week as Andy Dalton continues to rehab his right thumb. The plan is for Dalton to be available as the backup. pic.twitter.com/nuvzpakbhj

— David Newton (@DNewtonespn) October 30, 2024

Canales said he "erred on the side of caution" in not having Dalton, who was listed as a full participant in Wednesday's practice, start.

Dalton led the Panthers to a 1-4 record in five starts following Young's benching in Week 2. Young then stepped in following Dalton's injury to start in the Panthers' Week 8 loss to the Denver Broncos last Sunday.

Both Young and Dalton practiced throwing during Wednesday's practice, but it was Young who got reps with the Panthers' first unit, Canales said.

Canales told reporters that the decision was made with the goal of "taking the decision out of Andy's hands," and indicated that the Panthers would reevaluate the starting order after Week 9.

#Panthers QBs Bryce Young & Andy Dalton getting some throws in during the open portion of practice.@CSLonQCN #KeepPounding pic.twitter.com/hF9HSMehkE

— Gabe McDonald (@GabeMcDonald_) October 30, 2024

Young went 24-of-37 for 224 yards, throwing for two touchdowns while getting picked off twice in his return to the QB1 role.

When speaking to reporters after Sunday's loss, Canales said he wanted to get more information about Dalton's status before naming the Week 9 starter.

He noted that his Panthers struggled with "inconsistency" against the Broncos, perhaps especially on a third-quarter drive that involved delay of game calls against Young's offense on consecutive snaps.

"We looked like a good offense on the first drive. And then, we just go, I don't know what it was, seven or eight possessions before we get our next first down," Canales said on Sunday (h/t the Charlotte Observer's Alex Zietlow.) "Trying to find a rhythm, trying to find the run game in this against a really good defense... A lot of communication stuff that we gotta iron out in terms of me getting the play call in earlier for Bryce, Bryce handling the information, getting it to our guys so we can get lined up and assess what the defense is doing, so something we gotta do there."

Canales added about Young: "It's his first time back out there, and he was able to just keep working through some of the issues and compete to find completions out there. I thought he had some excellent drives. I thought he had some excellent throws in there."

Canales had previously indicated that he would consider giving Young another shot at the starting job prior to Dalton's injury. After the team's fourth straight loss under Dalton, he told reporters that he was "completely sensitive to the questions and they are not unfounded and unbased" about the likelihood Young would start again.

Young will now get another shot at earning back the QB1 job amid Dalton's recovery from injury. The Saints' leaky pass defense, which ranks 28th in the NFL through eight games with 2,108 passing yards allowed, could present an opportunity for Young to build on the positives of his Week 8 start.

There's being obsessed with fantasy football.

And then there's being bold enough to approach Bijan Robinson to tell him to dial it back on the field for a week for fantasy reasons.

"You hear it all the time," the Atlanta Falcons running back told Bleacher Report. "You don't realize how many people actually play fantasy football. For me, that's what I realized. How many people come up to me and are like, 'I've got you on my fantasy team,' or, 'I'm going up against you.' I actually had a guy come up to me and was like, 'bro, please don't perform well this week because I'm going against you in fantasy.'"

While Robinson said he found that interaction to be amusing and laughed it off, there is seemingly always some fantasy-related noise surrounding the second-year playmaker given his overall talent and that he sometimes splits carries with running back Tyler Allgeier.

"It's definitely something I just try to tune out because it can take over your mind if you start thinking about it like that," he said. "But I know it's such a big thing for football, and I always tell people to go get your money and hopefully we perform well for you."

He has certainly performed well.

Atlanta is rolling at 5-3 with wins in four of its last five games, and Robinson has been a major part of the success. He already has 546 rushing yards, 244 receiving yards and five total touchdowns and is on pace to go over 1,000 yards on the ground after he fell just short with 976 in his rookie campaign.

Robinson has been particularly dialed in of late with 105 yards from scrimmage and two touchdowns against the Carolina Panthers, 143 yards from scrimmage and a touchdown against the Seattle Seahawks, and 106 yards from scrimmage and a touchdown against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the last three games alone.

It's a joy to watch Bijan run.

📺: #SEAvsATL on FOX
📱: https://t.co/waVpO8ZBqG pic.twitter.com/yfkjibIp3V

— NFL (@NFL) October 20, 2024

He looks more comfortable in the Falcons' new system every week, which is surely what the team had in mind when it hired head coach Raheem Morris and offensive coordinator Zac Robinson this past offseason.

It felt like a needed change after former Falcons head coach Arthur Smith went 7-10 in three straight seasons and was largely criticized for failing to maximize an offense with so many weapons and first-round picks.

Morris was the defensive coordinator for the Los Angeles Rams the past three seasons and won a Super Bowl during that time, while Robinson was in a variety of roles with the NFC West team before being promoted to passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach.

It hasn't taken long for them to establish a pattern of success in Atlanta.

"With those pieces coming in, it's been super positive not just for me but for the whole team," Robinson said. "Just with Raheem bringing in that positivity and being such a players' coach, he's definitely grasped the team. It's just fun to be there. And obviously when you win, it's a lot better. The vibe around the building has been amazing.

"Even with Zac coming in and being an innovator with the offense and me feeling comfortable with it. Everybody knowing their roles and knowing their places has definitely been a blessing. I'm excited to see what we've got going for this next stretch coming up, but it's definitely been fun to be a part of it."

The coaching staff wasn't the only area where the Falcons made a major change heading into the 2024 campaign, as they also signed quarterback Kirk Cousins after inconsistent play from the position the past two seasons with Desmond Ridder, Marcus Mariota and Taylor Heinicke.

Atlanta now has a four-time Pro Bowler with seven seasons of more than 4,000 passing yards to play the role of point guard as he distributes the ball to the likes of Robinson, Allgeier, Drake London, Darnell Mooney, Kyle Pitts and others.

Bijan scores on Cousins' fourth TD pass!

📺: #ATLvsTB on FOX
📱: https://t.co/waVpO909ge pic.twitter.com/ZMbMOCyICz

— NFL (@NFL) October 27, 2024

It is a move that is more than paying off, as he has completed 68.3 percent of his passes for 2,106 yards, 14 touchdowns and seven interceptions through eight games. He also has a combined eight touchdown passes in two head-to-head victories over the Buccaneers, who were a presumed top contender in the division coming into the season.

"He's been great," Robinson said of Cousins. "He's experienced as a veteran who has been at the game for a long time and played a lot of football. That's what he brings to the team is that leadership. He's also teaching me how to be a leader on the field and make my voice heard by some of the guys in a positive way.

"Obviously, he's very talented. But it's more so his mindset that I gravitate toward. He's been a huge plus not just for the offense but for the whole team."

Another huge plus for Robinson this season has been his partnership with ORB Sport Smart Mouthguard. The advanced smart mouthguard monitors physiology and biomechanics to create an overall picture regarding performance, strengths and areas for improvement all while providing better protection against dental injuries.

"It's been amazing," Robinson said of the partnership. "ORB is the only mouthguard that tracks data, it tracks your heart rate, it tracks your impact. I think that technology is obviously becoming a really big thing in the world, especially in sports. With ORB, tracking that technology for the future is something that's been great for me. Just me using the data while I'm in practice and in games and seeing what I use and my movement skills and the impact that I'm taking every single game being a running back.

"It's been super beneficial. The thing that helps me the most is it definitely improves my performance on the field and how comfortable I feel. Not just with it being placed in my mouth, but how it tracks what I'm doing on the field and the different movement skills. If I'm getting hit a little bit more on my right side, it tracks that. If I'm getting hit a little bit more on my left side, it tracks that. It takes my game to the next level."

Seemingly every member of the Falcons have taken their game to the next level like that in divisional contests this season.

Bijan on the run 🏃‍➡️#TBvsATL on Prime Video
Also streaming on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/6sr25le1BS

— NFL (@NFL) October 4, 2024

They are 4-0 in NFC South contests, while nobody else in the division is better than 1-2. They also already swept the season series against the 4-4 Buccaneers thanks to a Week 5 overtime win at home and Sunday's road win, which gives them a critical tiebreaker moving forward.

"Every single game is important for us no matter AFC or NFC, but we do know the NFC is what we have to hone in on," Robinson said. "We have an important one coming up this Sunday against the [Dallas] Cowboys. We understand that every game is going to be important no matter the record or who it is, but in the NFC South that was a big one for us last week. Just to go 4-0 and continue winning in our division."

If the Falcons keep winning in their division, Robinson will have the opportunity to make plays on the postseason stage for the first time in his career.

Having already dealt Diontae Johnson to the Baltimore Ravens, the Carolina Panthers may not be done making moves ahead of the NFL trade deadline on Nov. 5.

Per ESPN's Jeremy Fowler, the Panthers are "flexible" on potentially trading veteran running back Miles Sanders if there are teams looking for help in the backfield.

Carolina received a 2025 fifth-round draft pick from the Ravens in exchange for Johnson and sixth-round pick.

It's hard to justify a scenario where the Panthers, given their current situation with a 1-7 record, hold onto a backup running back who might be of more value to another team.

The Panthers gave Sanders a four-year, $25.4 million contract as a free agent in March 2023 to be their starting running back. He didn't take to the job with 586 yards from scrimmage on 156 touches in 16 games last season.

Sanders' 3.3 yards per carry were the third-fewest in the NFL among all running backs with at least 100 attempts during the 2023 campaign.

Chuba Hubbard has surpassed Sanders on the depth chart. He started the Panthers' final 12 games last season and all eight so far in 2024. The 25-year-old has been one of the few bright spots for the offense with 593 yards and three touchdowns on 118 rushing attempts.

Sanders hasn't played more than 42 percent of the offensive snaps in a game this season. His single-game high for rushing attempts is seven, done in back-to-back games in Weeks 2 and 3.

It's not as if Sanders is so valuable as a receiver to be worth keeping on the team. Hubbard has 24 receptions on 26 targets, compared to 19 catches on 24 targets for Sanders.

The biggest potential hurdle to trading Sanders is his contract. Fowler noted the veteran running back still has $4.02 million in guaranteed money left on the deal, some of which would have to be picked up by the Panthers to facilitate a potential trade.

Sanders did prove during his four seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles that he can be a quality running back in the right situation. He averaged 1,163 yards from scrimmage and six touchdowns per season from 2019 to '22.

Following the New Orleans Saints' 26-8 loss against the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday, Saints' head coach Dennis Allen said Monday that defensive tackle Nathan Shepherd did not intentionally try to injure Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert.

"I think it's not accurate. Here's a guy that's trying to wrap the quarterback up. He's on the ground, he has no idea whether the quarterback has the ball or not. He's just trying to bring the quarterback down to the ground," Allen said, according to ESPN's Katherine Terrell. "There was nothing malicious about that play. It's a guy that's trying to make the play. I went back and looked at that play again after seeing the comments and I don't agree with that."

Herbert delivered a pass to Chargers running back J.K. Dobbins while still on his feet, but as he was taken to the ground, Shepherd, who was lying on the field, pulled him down by the ankle.

Chargers center Bradley Bozeman quickly shoved Shepherd off of Herbert, making it a point to protect his quarterback, who has been dealing with a lingering right ankle sprain since Week 2.

Following the play, both Shepherd and Bozeman received unnecessary roughness penalties.

"It was probably one of the dirtier plays I've ever seen," Bozeman said on Sunday, per Terrell. "You protect your quarterback no matter what. And I think any of our offensive linemen that was in my position would've done the same thing."

#Chargers C Bradley Bozeman on Saints DL Nathan Shepherd's hit on QB Justin Herbert, "it was probably one of the dirtier plays I've ever seen."

Bozeman added, "Protect your quarterback no matter what." pic.twitter.com/YJbbOEDcRX

— Fernando Ramirez (@RealFRamirez) October 28, 2024

Following the dedication from his center, Herbert told reporters, "That's the type of center you want on your team," according to Terrell.

"He'll give everything for this team, and I appreciated what he did," Herbert continued, per Terrell. I tried to pull him off so he didn't get any penalties called, but to have a guy like that defending you, there's no better feeling."

The Chargers and Saints will have to agree to disagree on the intentions behind Sunday's play.