NFC North Notes: Bears, Packers, Vikings

Bears

• The Athletic’s Adam Jahns points out that if Bears QB Nick Foles plays at least half the snaps in the regular season and playoffs for Chicago and gets the team to the NFC Championship, he would void his deal. 
• Chicago would then likely have to re-sign Foles to a market-rate deal, which would look a lot better if he indeed quarterbacks the team to within a game of the Super Bowl. 
• As long as Foles is just average if he wins the starting job, Jahns thinks Bears QB Mitchell Trubisky will be allowed to leave via free agency in 2021. 
• Jahns also writes there’s a scenario where Trubisky wins the job and keeps it by playing more to the level he did in 2018, where he had 24 passing touchdowns to 12 interceptions and was a Pro Bowl alternate — or even becoming a franchise quarterback with a dream season. 
• In that situation, the Bears would have to consider using the franchise tag to keep Trubisky, or letting him leave and rolling with Foles and potentially a draft pick. 
• If both Trubisky and Foles falter, then the Bears would be looking at potentially needing to draft another first-round quarterback, though it’s unclear if GM Ryan Pace or HC Matt Nagy would be the ones making that decision at that point. 

Packers

Packers president Mark Murphy discussed GM Brian Gutekunst’s 2020 draft class including the decision to trade up for QB Jordan Love in the first round and the reaction that has come from fans and the media in his latest mailbag.

“Personally, I don’t put much weight on the various draft grades, as it takes two to three years to be able to really evaluate the quality of a draft class. I do have great confidence in Brian Gutekunst and give him credit for having the confidence to make the decisions that he believes are in the long-term best interests of the organization,” Murphy writes, via Packers.com.

Murphy was also asked about the Packers’ long-term financial stability in the event there’s no regular season or even one without fans in stadiums.

“I obviously hope that we are able to play the entire season as scheduled. But, as the old saying goes, hope is not a strategy, and while the league office is planning to play an entire schedule, we are also looking at other options if the health and safety of our players and fans dictate that we not play games or play games without fans,” Murphy writes. “We are trying not to set false deadlines and to wait as long as possible before making final decisions regarding whether and how to play games. In the event the season is cancelled, though, I do believe that we will be able to weather the storm. As you note, we have over $360 million in our corporate reserve fund and, while we would obviously take a financial hit, we would remain financially viable.”

Vikings

An NFL executive tells Mike Sando of The Athletic that the Vikings are consistently one of the best teams at manipulating the draft via trades.

“Minnesota is consistently one of the best — if not the best — at moving around the draft board and getting great value for their picks,” the executive said.

The Vikings opted to trade down four times and load up on late-round picks.

However, other teams have focused on adding more veteran players, considering that offseason workouts have been severely reduced and the preseason could be sacrificed in order to ensure the NFL can play a full 16 game season.

“Now that you can have veterans on the practice squad, if we don’t have a real offseason program and go to camp late, maybe have two preseason games instead of four, there is less opportunity for guys on the back end to make it,” an executive tells Sando. “Are you adding college guys you don’t have a medical on, you don’t have a 40 time on? Or would you rather have a vet and see what he can do and see if he can compete?”