What we learned Wednesday at NFL Annual Meetin

[delmermollie]

PHOENIX -- A gaggle of NFC teams used Wednesday to shoot down a month's worth of rampant trade speculation. coach Sean Payton came out strong against whispers that might be shopped, saying of truth to the go sip. Acro s the room at the NFC coaches breakfast, coach announced that Minnesota has to trade running back . Pete Carroll capped off the hat trick by neutralizing reports that pa s rusher to join former defensive coordinator and new coach Dan Quinn in Atlanta. "Michael and I, we communicate regularly," Carroll told . "I'm in touch with where Mike is and what's going on and he hasn't mentioned a thing about any of that. It's never been part of the conversation Joe Nieuwendyk Jersey ." Said Carroll: "Like so many things that happen, those things come out of somewhere, but it isn't coming out of the conversations that we've been having." It sure sounds like everyone's staying put. Here's what else we learned Wednesday at the NFL Annual Meeting: Carroll also confirmed that the are "well aware" of pa s rusher 's looming fifth-year option, saying the front office will deal with that "when the time comes." It was fascinating to hear Carroll opine about the different style of play along his defensive line, noting that Bennett, Irvin, , and all offer unique gifts. Instead of trying to find a series of identical robots for Seattle's four-man front, Carroll preached about acquiring and drafting the best players available -- "all types of guys and styles" -- and "fitting them in." Too many teams struggle to make this work. Niners coach Jim Tomsula gushed about as an but we aren't buying it. remains the favorite to see the bulk of the carries next season, with Bush a suming his natural role as a third-down weapon in space. When asked Tomsula why is still teamle s, he had no answer for us. After saying at the combine that he wanted the wideout back with the team next season, Tomsula and have clearly moved on. Asked about Jameis Winston, Bucs coach Lovie Smith to draft the , saying: "We feel comfortable with who Jameis Winston is, what he's done and what he'll do. He's definitely on our board." Roger Goodell met with the media and shared where the league stands on football in Los Angeles, the case, Cleveland's texting scandal, deflated footballs and much, much more. You can read our roundup , but, honestly, not much was accomplished. Goodell and the league remain "in proce s" on every one of those i sues. Back to Payton: In the wake of trading away , the coach raved about , repeatedly saying that he "loves" the third-year tight end. The coach also praised a pair of practice squad wideouts -- presumably and -- as emerging players. Payton also called the trade for former center a move that was "absolutely" made to help keep Brees upright on pa sing downs. coach Bruce Arians had the line of the day, playfully dre sing down a reporter who asked about Arizona's interest in trading for by saying: Tom Coughlin is not retiring any time soon. That's the feel we continue to get from the 68-year-old head coach, who will turn 69 before the beginning of the 2015 season. Coughlin has always personally felt like he got a late start in the busine s, and that's why he wants to get the most out of his experience now. A reporter began a question Wednesday with: "When you retire in 10 years," to which Coughlin replied: "I'm glad you asked it that way." He laughed off questions about a po sible succe sion plan within the building. Coughlin revealed that part of the reasoning in switching to Ben McAdoo's system -- he had the option to hire Mike Sullivan in 2013, who ran almost the exact same offense as Kevin Gilbride -- was that he wanted to challenge . It doesn't sound like Manning was lackadaisical toward football, but Coughlin felt like a challenge would reinvigorate the veteran quarterback. On one hand, that could lend itself to thinking that Manning will eventually get that extension and not play out a series of one-year deals. . While many fans think he's being under-used, the head coach has a different take: "Development wise, he's very young. There's obviously things that the fans see and say 'Wow.' But the overall part of the game, he's got so much work to do beyond the flash plays you see. I think the big thing there is being in the same system again. Understanding where he's going to be at. And us understanding him a bit better, too." Jim Caldwell is high on for the 2015 season after watching his 10th overall pick -- two spots ahead of -- struggle initially. "I want to see him get better with familiarity in our system, running routes the way we'd like to see him run them consistently. So those are the key things. He improved his blocking from the line of scrimmage, there's no question. But don't get me wrong, it's not like he's all of a sudden going to be Charlie Sanders, but he's going to be better than he was. But he's working, believe me, he's working hard." Caldwell had no interest in going there with Ebron and Beckham, by the way: "You know, here's the thing. If you take a look at a number of guys, most of the guys who excel, you didn't think they'd excel. You have the benefit of hindsight, we all have that benefit. So before it all started, you wouldn't have said that other than . So let's not play that game. The fact of the matter is, I feel good about what we did. We got in the playoffs our first year. That was good, not great ... but I think the decisions we made, they benefited us." Unle s we were all Chip Kelly, who said today that Beckham was the No. 1 rated player on his board, Caldwell is probably right. The latest Podcast and discu ses which star players were helped (and hurt) by free agency. Find more content on . Andy Moog Jersey