NFC Notes: Sam Darnold, Mike Evans, 49ers, Cardinals, Seahawks

49ers QB Brock Purdy says that the addition of WR Mike Evans to the team and his desire to have a strong finish to his Hall of Fame career put added pressure on him, which he welcomes as motivation.

“He’s been awesome,” Purdy said, via NBC Sports Bay Area. “What he’s done in his career, he’s a Hall of Famer, thousand-yard seasons — really year after year, his whole career — he’s won a Super Bowl. Just being around him and in his presence and understanding what it’s going to take to play with him. And just like, honestly, like the good pressure that it brings. I have a guy that is demanding success and demanding to be great, and I love that. I want to play with guys like that.”

Cardinals WR Kendrick Bourne spent the first four years of his career playing under new HC Mike LaFleur, when he was the 49ers’ receivers coach and passing game coordinator. Bourne said LaFleur has been enthusiastic throughout their offseason program and players are learning well from him. 

“He was calling plays off the head, no script,” Bourne said, via Darren Urban of the team’s site. “He’s just calling plays, making us get to spots off his head, and it’s like, ‘Yoooo.’ It’s dope to see it come from his mind and then the guys, and I’m proud of us, we’re catching on. If he isn’t presenting it well in the classroom and going off his mind outside, the pieces don’t come together. He’s enthusiastic and passionate in the classroom, and the way he’s teaching it we’re receiving it that way. It’s not dull. As players we feel that.”

LaFleur said he has an authentic approach, and the positive feedback he gets from players is that he can “keep it real.”

“I don’t see it as energy. I think it’s authenticity,” LaFleur said. “I’m not smart enough to lie and be fake. A lot of the positive feedback I have gotten throughout my career is ‘you keep it real.’”

LaFleur said he always knew he’d get into coaching. 

“I always knew I would probably coach,” LaFleur said. “I’d say I had the dream of actually playing first, but I wasn’t too dumb to figure it probably wasn’t to be.”

Now with a Super Bowl under his belt, Seahawks QB Sam Darnold said he still understands why the Vikings decided to let him depart in free agency last offseason in order to go with first-round QB J.J. McCarthy.

“I totally understand the move to go with the younger quarterback on a rookie deal, and signing these veteran players that you can maybe pay a little bit more while he’s on his rookie deal, especially if you believe in him,” Darnold said on The San Clemente Podcast. “Yeah, the business side of it, I totally understand. And like, I think J.J. [McCarthy] is a good player. I think he’s going to be a really good player in this league. I truly believe that. And, you know, for them to see that and be like, “Alright, we’re gonna, you know, Sam, that was a great year,’ but like the business part of it, it was like, ‘OK, like, you know, I totally understand.”