Bears
Making the practice squad and hanging around to develop further at the NFL level would have been a great outcome for Bears UDFA QB Tyson Bagent, especially considering the jump from tiny Division II Shepherd to the NFL. But now Bears HC Matt Eberflus says Bagent could be a part of the competition to be the primary backup, which would be a huge outcome for a rookie free agent.
“I think everything’s open right now. I really do,” Eberflus said via Pro Football Talk. “You never put a ceiling on any player. You’ll see guys, they get into a game and they start rising up.”
Chicago has veteran options for the role in P.J. Walker and Nathan Peterman, but Eberflus reiterated Bagent is in the mix.
“Everything’s open right now,” Eberflus said. “Everybody can look at the roster and see who’s in a competition. Those are all going to be open. If you close your mind off to that, then you might be missing on something. So you have to let it play itself out.”
Lions
Lions DE Aidan Hutchinson said he’s “thankful” the Jaguars passed on him and said that everything worked out the way that it was supposed to with him ending up in Detroit.
“I’m happy here. Very thankful, very thankful,” Hutchinson said, via Sports Illustrated. “I mean, it all worked out. It was divine timing. The way things went was the way things were supposed to go.”
Hutchinson plans to build upon a strong rookie season and enter the ranks of the elite edge rushers in his sophomore season.
“I think the sky’s the limit for me,” he said. “I really feel that. I haven’t even scratched my potential yet. I feel like I’m still stacking the days, getting so much better every day. Man, it’s going to be a fun year.”
Packers
Packers GM Brian Gutekunst and ST coordinator Rich Bisaccia are not surprised to be seeing the typical struggles that a young player like K Anders Carlson, a sixth-round pick can show, especially for a kicker.
“We believe in him, we think he has a lot of talent, he’s done some really good things since he’s been here. You guys have seen his leg strength, his power. I really like the way the ball elevates off his foot,” Gutekunst said, via PackersWire.com. “But you have to find a way to get to a more consistent level. One thing…there’s not a lot of patience sometimes when there needs to be. Mason had some multiple times while he was here where he was in some really bad spots, some struggles, and I always thought Ted gave him a pretty long leash and he always came out of it. I think that’s important, especially for young players to get that patience, that leash to get there. But at some point, when this stuff becomes real, it becomes different. You see that, it’s pretty typical, you see it around the league right now. It’s gotta get fixed, and we have to get to a point where we can produce when it matters, but yeah, I think that’s pretty typical.”
“Age and wisdom allow you to have patience, especially with this position,” Bisaccia noted of Carlson. “He’s exhibited a lot of the things we thought he was in a lot of positive ways. There’s always going to be things to clean up. We’re excited about what tomorrow can bring and hopefully, we can play well in the game and evaluate the things that are good and keep getting better and evaluate the things that need to work on and hopefully get better in that direction. I’ll go back to his mental makeup has a lot to do with why we drafted him, why we like him, and why we think his future is going to be bright for him.”
Looking for the latest NFL Insider News & Rumors?
Be sure to follow NFL Trade Rumors on TWITTER and FACEBOOK for breaking NFL News and Rumors for all 32 teams!
