NFC Notes: Bears, Buccaneers, Cowboys, Vikings

Bears

Bears HC Matt Nagy explained that Patrick Mahomes having a full year in the Chiefs’ offensive system gives him an advantage over Mitchell Trubisky in terms of his development.

“Well, what’s fair to compare is you have one, in Patrick, who has had a full year in this offense to understand it,” Nagy said, via Rich Campbell of the Chicago Tribune. “Now, regardless of playing it in, he’s had a full year, more than a year to sit behind it and learn and understand and watch tape with those quarterbacks last year and get to see all the talk, all the discussions of where you go on this play and that play.

Nagy admitted that Trubisky has had some “growing pains” and will “take a little bit of time” to develop.

“Whereas Mitchell hasn’t had that. He’s being forced into this thing right away, and so that’s where these growing pains are going to occur. That’s where, I just want to make it clear to him and to everybody, if you’re realistic about it, it does take a little bit of time. And in the meantime, as you saw last night, we have a defense that can help us out during this process, and so the sooner we get it and it starts clicking, then the better. But that’s the difference between the two, and it’s obviously near to see Patrick doing so well right now.”

Buccaneers

Buccaneers WR DeSean Jackson mentioned that with QB Ryan Fitzpatrick “on fire right now“, the team has to keep riding the hot hand at quarterback.

“He’s playing on fire right now,” Jackson said, via Pro Football Talk. “With the way the team is rallying behind him and just playing lights-out football, you have to kind of honor it. You can’t take the hot man out. You got the hot fire right now. It’s like NBA Jam. We used to play NBA Jam — whoever got that hot fire shot, you got to keep shooting, man. It’s not my decision but I’m sure Dirk and coach Monken and the guys that make those calls, they’ll make sure they stay on fire until that fire is out. We’re going to stay on fire. That’s our job, to stay on fire and that’s what we’re going to do.”

Cowboys

• The Dallas Cowboys officially re-signed WR Brice Butler on Tuesday. (NFLTR)
• Butler later told reporters that it’s “like with an old girlfriend, you know what she likes and what she don’t like.” (Jon Machota)
• Butler added that he had visits scheduled with two other teams, but told them he would prefer to re-sign with the Cowboys. (Jon Machota)
• The Cowboys worked out S Andrew Adams, CB David Amerson, CB Jeremy Boykins, CB Alex Carter, CB Michael Hunter, CB Jeremy Lane, WR Chad Hansen, WR Justice Liggins, WR Francis Owusu, QB Landry Jones, LB Ufomba Kamalu, DE Cameron Malveaux, OT William Poehls, DT Christian Ringo, and DT Adolphus Washington. (Howard Balzer)

Vikings

• Ian Rapoport reports that the Vikings signed K Dan Bailey to a one-year contract worth $2 million.
• According to Rapoport, Bailey actually turned down several offers that were for worth double what the Vikings are paying on multi-year deals for the opportunity to play for the right team.