NFC North Notes: Lions, Packers, Vikings

Lions

Lions GM Bob Quinn said QB Matthew Stafford is “good to go” after ending last season on injured reserve due to back and hip injuries. 

“Matthew is doing great,” Quinn said, via NFL.com. “He calls me probably once a week to check in. I know he’s working out. I know he’s feeling good, so health-wise he’s good to go. As I said at the end of the season, if we were starting our offseason program next week, he’d be there as a full participant. He’s cleared medically from that standpoint.”

Quinn said there are no problems within the Lions’ locker room after former players like CB Darius Slay, DB Glover Quin, CB Quandre Diggs, TE Garrett Hudson, and TE Hakeem Valles spoke about their negative relationship with HC Matt Patricia.

“I’d say no [it is not a problem],” Quinn said, via Gordon. “I haven’t talked about it a ton, but you can go ask anybody in the locker room right now what they think of coach and how he runs the team, and they’re 100 percent behind him.”

Quinn went on to say that “you can’t make everybody happy” when conducting an NFL business and pointed out how excited Lions CB Duron Harmon was to be acquired by the team. 

“You can’t make everybody happy in this business in terms of how you do certain things, but I can just say from the guys that we’ve signed in free agency, the guys that wanted to be here — a number of guys in our free agent class reached out to us,” Quinn said. “We obviously liked them as players, but in the weeks leading up to free agency, those guys had their agent call me and say, ‘Hey, my guy wants to be there and play for Coach.’ So, you just have conversations with guys like Duron Harmon, who we traded for. I mean, I’ve never seen a player more excited to be traded — and we’ve done a lot of trades since I’ve been here — than Duron Harmon. I mean, he was like literally jumping out of my FaceTime wanting to come out here immediately. I have no concerns with that at all.”

Packers

Packers WR Allen Lazard spoke with Matt Schneidman of The Athletic about the speculation that Green Bay needs a better wide receiver behind Davante Adams, and if Lazard takes offense to it as the current No. 2 receiver.

“Do I notice it? Yeah. Do I care? No. At the end of the day, every time I go into a game, all I do is make sure I just do my job and help my team win. I know how productive I can be, especially after last year and whatnot. I invite competition because I know that’s only gonna make me better and that’s a big reason why I had such a “breakout” year is because I was sitting behind Davante, watching him work every single day, and Jake Kumerow and a bunch of guys throughout the team. I was just around very talented professionals. How they handled their business, I was able to kind of pick up on that and reiterate it within my game and my life and how I was moving. I know how good I am. I’m not afraid of competition or anything. I only invite it. I want to win the Super Bowl, ultimately. If we get another great receiver, it’s only better, so we have someone that the other team doesn’t have, I guess. I’m not trippin’,” Lazard said. 

Vikings

• Chris Tomasson of Pioneer Press believes that the Vikings are in luck due to the depth at the cornerback position in the draft and mentions Alabama’s Trevon Diggs, Utah’s Jaylon Johnson, TCU’s Jeff Gladney, Clemson’s A.J. Terrell, Minnesota’s Antoine Winfield Jr., and LSU’s Kristian Fulton as some possibilities. The team has two first-round picks at No. 22 and No. 25 to work with this year.