NFC North Notes: Bears, Packers, Vikings

Bears

• Michael Walton of NBC Chicago takes a look at whether the Bears could make sense as a potential landing spot for DE Shaq Lawson in the event that the Bills move on from him.
• Lawson has reportedly been on the trading block the past few years and there’s no guarantee he’ll be with the Bills for the start of the 2018 season.
• Walton mentions that the Bears have a great defensive coordinator in Vic Fangio, who has done a good job of getting players to take the next step in their development.
• According to Walton, Lawson would be a great option to play opposite of Akiem Hicks in Fangio’s scheme.

Packers

Packers DL Montravius Adams, who was limited by a stress fracture in his foot last season, explained that the injury prevented him developing trust with the coaching staff and led to him seeing limited action during his rookie season.

“It was kind of hard because coaches want to go with guys who they trust,” Adams said, via Packers.com. “I didn’t really get to build that trust during training camp. They never saw me in pads until when I came back four months later. That was kind of hard.”

Adams added that he’s happy the injury is behind him and he’s looking forward to building on the strides he made late last season.

“I feel like I made strides at the end of the year just from when I came back until when I finished,” Adams said. “I’m just excited to be healthy and try to make sure nothing else happens for me. Now I’m back and the sky is the limit.”

Vikings

According to Andrew Krammer of the Star-Tribune, the representatives for Vikings WR Stefon Diggs and LB Anthony Barr heard from the team last month regarding this contract situations.

Both are obvious extension candidates for the Vikings, but GM Rick Spielman explained that they’re currently in a situation where they have an expensive tier of starters and lower cost backups.

“The way our [roster] is built right now, we have two tiers,” Spielman said. “We have a pretty expensive tier in your starters, but you can’t have that expensive of a tier in your backups. So you have to have guys that can economically fit in the cap as your backups.

“Every year is a big draft,” Spielman added, “but the more heavier or front-loaded our roster gets with those big contracts, the more important the backups or the role players that you’re hoping will develop into starters make a significant difference. If you do get one of your top-tier guys that you paid a lot of money to hurt, there isn’t another high expensive player behind him.”