NFC Notes: Bears, Packers, Vikings

Bears

Bears HC Matt Nagy says he understands the pressure and urgency to win in 2020. 

“We all understand that every year is different,” Nagy said, via ChicagoBears.com. “It’s been a really interesting journey for us. In 2018, to come in with no quote-unquote expectations or standards for our team, we were young and I think what they realized is that every single day we need to be able to put out our best. We stayed very healthy and we had a lot of success. There was a lot of swag within our team, there was a lot of fun. You saw that creativity with bringing in defensive guys down in the red zone and the goal line, and we were successful with it.

“Now, all of a sudden you go to 2019 and we struggled more as a team. We’ve got fans in the city that are very passionate, very loyal, they care. Their care factor is extremely high. We would not want it any other way, and we’re going to do everything we can … myself as a head coach, I need to be vulnerable and understand that it starts with me and whatever I didn’t do good enough in 2019 I need to fix. So I look that thing dead on and I understand that’s what we’re going to do. It starts with details. Details, details, details. ‘Attack’ and ‘aggressive’ are words that we’re using a lot. And trust. We’ve had two years of a great culture now. We never gave up after losing four games in a row last year, and that’s a credit to our players and our coaches that we stuck together and gave ourselves a chance. So we’re really looking forward to 2020.”

Packers

Packers S Adrian Amos believes second-year S Darnell Savage can make a “big jump” in 2020. 

The playbook, knowing what to expect to the following season. Being around your team and your situation, coming into Year 2, we have the same secondary, he knows where I’m going to be, who the corners are. He can make a big jump in that way,” Amos said, via PackersWire.com

Packers DC Mike Pettine said the “sky is the limit” for Savage. 

“He made great strides as the year went on. The sky is the limit for Darnell,” Pettine said.

Vikings

Vikings’ second-year C Garrett Bradbury said he has been training in Denver at a small gym this offseason. 

Thankfully, since it was a one-on-one facility, it never shut down, so I’ve never not had gym access,” Bradbury said, via Ben Goessling of the Star Tribune. “We were taking all the protocols necessary, and I was checking vitals daily before entering the facility.”

Bradbury also mentioned that Vikings WR Adam Thielen hosted workout sessions with “quite a few” teammates and OL coach Rick Dennison at his gym in Lakeville, Minneapolis.  

“Two days a week, we’re getting on the field and doing football work, and we’re going through whatever we would be doing for an individual period with Coach Dennison,” Bradbury said. “That’s the beauty of being up here and being with some linemen, and I know that the guys in other cities are doing the same thing.”

Bradbury said he is focusing on staying consistent for his second year in the league. 

I think in terms of improvement, consistency is kind of the biggest thing for me. It’s such a long season, so you watch a few stretches where you have a few good games and you kind of don’t have such a good game, and so with all this time you’re able to reflect on, ‘What was I doing, what was I not doing, that was kind of prohibiting me from having the consistency?”

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