NFC North Notes: Lions, Packers, Vikings

Lions

Lions HC Matt Patricia made the decision to fire special teams coordinator Joe Marciano, but it doesn’t sound like OC Jim Bob Cooter is in any immediate danger of losing his job.

“He’s done a really good job for us here this year,” Patricia said, via Carlos Monarrez of the Detroit Free Press. “And we’re certainly always looking to try to get better, which obviously when you come out of week where we don’t perform well enough on Sunday it’s easy to kind of look at all of that. We do a good job of kind of self-assessing and moving forward getting ready for Chicago.

“I think Jim Bob has done a great job here with the offense for a long time and he continues to do that. We’ll just get better every week. I think offensively, defensively, special teams, it’s just a situation right now where we have to try to do obviously better than what we did last week and get going and start the second half of season off here the right way.”

Packers

• Packers HC Mike McCarthy said of the decision to cut S Jermaine Whitehead: “There’s a lot that goes into it. Clearly the pattern, the emphasis of what’s going on, the direction that Brian (is taking) and his imprint on the football team, there’s been change, particularly the last two weeks.” (Michael Cohen)

Vikings

Kirk Cousins says playing for the Vikings has exceeded his expectations.

“I think in a lot of ways, this experience has exceeded my expectations,” Cousins said, via the Pioneer Press. “I’m thrilled about our locker room, the chemistry we have on this team, the quality of teammates, the quality of leadership we have in this organization. Certainly would have loved to be better than 5-3-1, but I’m grateful we’re not 3-5-1.”