NFC Notes: Kaelon Black, Sean McVay, 49ers, Cardinals, Rams

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49ers The 49ers’ third-round RB Kaelon Black was a key participant in this year’s Senior Bowl following Indiana’s championship win. San Francisco vice president of personnel Tariq Ahmad thinks Black went to the Senior Bowl wanting to prove he’s a capable NFL running back. “I think he wanted to prove something,” Ahmad said, via Matt Barrows of The Athletic . “He wanted to prove that he could be a real NFL running back, and I thought it was a tremendous stage for him.” Ahmad was impressed by Black’s vision, reaction, finishing ability, and balance in contact. “The vision, reactions, the way he finished runs, the contact balance,” Ahmad said. “We all just loved the runner.” As for Black only having four receptions at Indiana in both 2024 and 2025, Ahmad thinks it was more a reflection of the Hoosiers’ offense rather than his catching ability. “It’s more of a reflection on the (Indiana) offense instead of what he cannot do,” Ahmad said. “We’ve been really happy with his hands, his route running.” Cardinals Regarding the Cardinals’ new HC, Mike LaFleur , WR Michael Wilson highly praised how personable LaFleur has proven to be since coming in, saying he shows interest in them as people instead of just as players. “I could go on for two or three minutes raving about him,” Wilson said, via Darren Urban of the team’s site . “He’s one of the few NFL coaches I’ve been around, every time we have a conversation, he always asks about my daughter, my wife, how I’m doing as a person, not just a football player. He makes you feel like you’re special as a human and not just an X and an O.” LaFleur spent 2023-2025 as the Rams’ offensive coordinator. Los Angeles HC Sean McVay said LaFleur allowed him to be a better coach by trusting him with their offense. “Mike allowed me to be a better head coach because of the trust and autonomy that I gave him,” McVay said. “He’s gonna be a great playcaller, he knows how to sequence a game, he knows how to set it up. I’m going to miss him a lot.” LaFleur coached WR Kendrick Bourne during the first four years of his career with the 49ers from 2017 to 2020. Bourne feels a duty to help LaFleur in the early stages of his head coaching career. “He helped me at the beginning,” Bourne said. “And I want to help him now at the beginning of his head coaching career.” Rams Rams HC Sean McVay said he regrets the way he handled the trade that sent QB Jared Goff to the Lions and admitted he was selfish in not being able to tell Goff directly. “ I’m super sensitive to what an amateur I was with the Goff situation, trading him, ” McVay said, via PFT . “Y ou want to talk about lack of courage, lack of clarity, lack of ability to be able to look somebody in the eye that you’ve had a lot of really cool experiences with and tell him, ‘Hey, not easy to say, but we might explore an opportunity to acquire Matthew Stafford , and you’ll be a part of a trade there.’ But instead, it’s like you kind of get frustrated, and it was more really about me than it was about him. I had a lot of things that I had to work through, and I didn’t handle that the right way. I’m not saying we wouldn’t have made the decision, but the handling of it was exactly the antithesis of how I would hope to handle things going forward. ” McVay added that he wishes he had communicated with Goff better and explained that he was potentially being traded. “ The important thing is to operate with clarity for people, ” McVay said. “ Did I have the courage to sit him down after…