NFC North Notes: Bears, Lions, Vikings

Bears

• Jay Glazer says that the Bears are “fearful” DC Vic Fangio could get hired as a head coach next year and mentions that Fangio is in a similar position as Bruce Arians was before he was hired by the Cardinals.
• Glazer mentions that teams are always looking for the next young up-and-coming head coach and overlook older coaches like Fangio.
• Glazer admits that Fangio, 60, needs polish up how he does in interviews, but thinks he’ll get some looks next year.

Lions

Lions OC Jim Bob Cooter was asked about his job status, given that the team is in the midst of a disappointing 2018 season.

“I mean, really it’s the same thing I’ve said a couple times and the reality of the situation, this league is a week-by-week, year-by-year league,” Cooter said, via Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press. “You’re kind of judged on your results. We want better results. Our goal is to play better offensively to help our team win games, so it’s probably not very wise for me to worry about all the sort of outside talk or all the speculation. It’s pretty wise for me to sort of get ready for the next opponent, evaluate our offense, what we can do better, what we should do better and how we can kind of improve as the year goes.”

• Lions WR Bruce Ellington tells Kyle Meinke of MLive.com that he had one his hamstring muscles removed a few years ago: “I don’t know if it’s fully recovered,” Ellington said, “because they removed it. So I don’t have it anymore.”
• Ellington explained that doctors recommended removing his semitendinosus because it was likely to cause him more issues in the future.

Vikings

Vikings CB Xavier Rhodes suffered a hamstring during Sunday’s game, but HC Mike Zimmer says the injury turned out to be “very, very mild.”

“Thankfully, it’s very, very mild,” Zimmer said, via the Pioneer Press. “As far as the TV doctors that were reporting were very erroneous.”