NFC North Notes: Bears, Lions, Packers

Bears

Regarding new Bears QB Nick Foles adjusting to their system, HC Matt Nagy pointed out that the veteran quarterback has been through multiple systems and should be able to quickly learn his scheme. 

“It’s like riding a bike,” Nagy said, via Jason Lieser of the Chicago Sun-Times. “He’s been through some different offenses, even from the last time we were together in Kansas City. But once you present somebody like Nick the playbook and they start looking at it, all of a sudden it just clicks.”

Nagy said they will try to implement some of the offensive aspects used when Foles and Nagy were part of the Chiefs in 2016. 

“You start remembering it and you just start retraining your brain from what you knew in the past year or couple years. There’s still terminology differences between all of us, but that doesn’t take much. And Nick’s a smart guy.”

Foles mentioned that his experience with Nagy will help his transition to the Bears and will just have to learn their specific terminology. 

“It’s nice to have that foundation . . . it’s by no means starting over with no knowledge of the offense,” Foles said. “There might be a few different terminologies and different run game and stuff like that, but I’ll be able to understand it decently well.”

Lions

Lions QB Matthew Stafford said second-round RB D’Andre Swift can “do it all” and highlighted his receiving ability out of the backfield. 

“As a player goes, he’s a back that can kind of do it all,” Stafford said, via Tim Twentyman of the team’s official site. “I think he does a good job out of the backfield catching the ball and making big plays. They handed it to him a bunch and he was doing a great job running with it.”

Stafford believes Swift’s addition was “huge” for their offense, given a majority of teams around the league use multi-back systems. 

“I think it’s huge,” Stafford said. “In the NFL everybody, but especially running backs, get dinged up and beat up here and there throughout a season, and really throughout games. The more guys you can have back there that can carry the rock and do a good job for you the better off you’re going to be.”

Packers

Packers HC Matt LaFleur told reporters that he understands where QB Aaron Rodgers is coming from in terms of the team drafting Jordan Love. 

“I totally understand where he’s coming from,” LaFleur said, via ESPN.com. “I think he’s very motivated, and he doesn’t need external motivation. He’s one of the most competitive people I’ve ever been around. And you guys, you can see that competitiveness every time we step out on that field. So I don’t think it’s going to drive him any more than if we would’ve drafted somebody else. I just think that’s who he is, that’s how he’s wired, that’s why he’s achieved the things that he’s done throughout his career.”

• Rob Demovsky of ESPN mentions that the Packers have a $385 million reserve fund to help cover a year’s worth of team expenses.
• The fund was previously established to ensure that the team could cover expenses for one year in the case that league or local revenue became an issue.