NFC North Notes: Bears, Lions, Packers

Bears

Bears HC Matt Nagy said there is currently “no competition” currently going on between QBs Nick Foles and Mitch Trubisky given they are still working under virtual conditions for their offseason program. 

“There’s no competition going on right now over Zoom, as you know,” Nagy, via Jeff Dickerson of ESPN. “I think what those guys are doing right now is they’re all building up their mental capacity within this offense as to what they like.”

Nady believes Foles’ experience in his offense back in 2016 with the Chiefs will help him quickly learn Kansas City’s system, in addition to his time spent with other organizations.

“We always talk about it [Foles learning the offense] like riding a bike,” Nagy said. “He’s been through some different offenses, even from the last time we were together in Kansas City. But what happens is once you present somebody like Nick the playbook and they start looking at it, all of a sudden it just clicks and you start remembering it and you just start retraining your brain from what you knew in the past year or couple years. But that doesn’t take much. Nick is a smart guy.”

Regarding Trubisky’s progress, Nagy says the fourth-year quarterback has been “learning” how to properly play his position on and off the field over the past two years. 

“In Mitch, I’ve seen a player in the previous two years who’s learning how to play the quarterback position,” Nagy said. “That doesn’t always mean on the field, that means off the field — watching tape, what notes do you take, what’s your schedule going to be, right? How do you accept coaching? How do you give feedback? And all of that stuff has been going on right now, has been going on in different ways. So what we’ll do, when we’re allowed, we get together and we’ll talk through some of the summary of what we just talked about — with the details of plays, with his scheduling, etc. — and I can see he’s starting to create his own way, his own habits. And obviously the biggest thing is none of it matters unless we all go out there and do it on the field, and now that’s going to be the next challenge, taking it onto the field and doing it through a competition.”

Nagy is hopeful that both Foles and Trubisky create a difficult decision for their coaching staff when electing their starting quarterback for 2020. 

“We’re all very open and honest in the discussions we have and then we just let things play out,” Nagy said. “In the end, what we want is for both those quarterbacks to be the best possible quarterbacks they can be individually and making it hard on us making the decision as to who the starter is, and that makes the Bears a better football team.”

Lions

Lions’ veteran WR Danny Amendola praised fourth-year WR Kenny Golladay and mentioned that they are both focused on reaching the 2020 playoffs. 

“What Kenny and I talk about now is we want to win,” Amendola said, via Tim Twentyman of the team’s official site. “We want to get to the playoffs. We want to have a home playoff game at Ford Field. I tell him as much as I can there’s nothing like that feeling of winning for your city, and that’s what we want to see the most. That’s what inspires us. That’s what pushes us day in and day out, because we want to win for our club, for our city, and we want to represent Detroit.”

Amendola said Golladay recently traveled to meet him in Austin, Texas for workouts. 

“He came down to Austin,” Amendola said. “We got some good work in here in Austin and did it in a safe manner. We want to get together and get as much work done as possible but to stay safe is most important.”

Amendola believes the “sky is the limit” for Golladay due to his physicality and must continue getting starting experience. 

“What I love about Kenny is he’s a dog,” Amendola said. “He plays the game very physical and he’s a great teammate. The sky is the limit for Kenny. It’s just a matter of getting out there, getting years under his belt, and getting experience under his belt.”

Amendola added that Golladay plans on traveling back out to him within the next couple of weeks to continue training. 

“I know he’s working hard,” Amendola. “I know he’s in California now. We talked about getting together here in the next week or two to try and again, pile up as much reps and as much work as we can here in these tough times.”

Packers

Rob Demovsky says there has been speculation that Packers HC Matt LaFleur and OC Nathaniel Hackett could develop an offensive package that is designed around rookie QB Jordan Love similar to one the Saints run with QB Taysom Hill.

However, Hackett told reporters that it’s “still so early to tell.”

“I think everything’s still so early to tell,” Hackett said. “Haven’t even really gotten to sit in a meeting room at Lambeau. I haven’t gotten to talk with him much or work face to face. I think there’s so much yet to be seen. You never know. Anything can happen.”

When asked about the balance between preparing to win now with Rodgers and preparing for the future with Love, Hackett says they’re simply taking things game by game.

“The coaches’ world is always game by game,” Hackett said. “Every single thing that we look at, we are always looking to try to accomplish that win each week. That’s the only thing that matters to us. The future is something that might be in the back of our mind, but we always live in the moment. That’s usually how we’re all judged. But at the same time, anything can happen at any moment within a game, that’s what makes the same so much fun. So you’ve got to prepare everybody like they’re a starter and they’ve got to go in there and play. So it’s about winning. It’s about Aaron Rodgers going out there and winning a football game and then Jordan’s going to just have to continually learn and continue to be a good sponge.”