Bears
Bears WR Darnell Mooney didn’t meet his or anyone else’s expectations for the 2022 season, ending up with less than 500 receiving yards a year after going over a thousand and breaking his foot in Week 12. He’s got his sights set on changing that in 2023.
“Do whatever I can do for my team,” Mooney said via the 33rd Team. “I mean, ball out, of course. Dominate. Not really on the ‘respect my name’ anymore. I’m just going out for disrespect. I’m just disrespecting everybody now. Don’t really care about respect no more. Other than that, I just want to win. Don’t really care about anything else for real.”
He added his recovery from that foot injury is going well.
“I am running,” Mooney said. “I’m cutting. Started cutting today. I’ll be 100%. I got screws in my foot, so I’ll be a little robotic. Probably a thousand times better than I was.”
Mooney is entering the final year of his rookie deal but said neither he nor the team is in much of a rush to get a contract done right now.
“They want to see me run and stuff,” Mooney said. “We’ll see. We’ll see. I’m in no rush.”
Lions
Lions DE Aidan Hutchinson had a big rookie season and is hoping to be a part of a culture change in Detroit. He spoke about seeing his jersey in the stands, being drafted by Detroit, and what it means to be able to play in front of his family during a recent interview.
“I’d be lying if I didn’t say there wasn’t any additional pressure being a hometown kid playing for the hometown team because there is,” Hutchinson told Eric Woodyard of ESPN. “That comes with the position of being a high draft pick and being where you grew up. But I’ve always dealt with the pressure and expectations in a good way. A lot of that comes from blocking out the outside noise, which is really important. And if you want to take that next step in your career, you’re not gonna get any clarification from the outside world. In my experience, you’ve got to go to the people you trust when times get a little hard. Walking into Game 1 against Philly and seeing so many No. 97 jerseys was eye-opening. When you’re in college, they don’t really make those and you don’t have your own personalized number. Now when I walk into Ford Field and see 97s everywhere, of course, I feel expectations and some added pressure to perform at my best. But I trust in my approach, the way I handle it and the way my family — and Michigan — raised me, and the way I deal with things, it kind of offsets each other.”
“I had a unique experience being in the draft position that I was in,” Hutchinson said of his draft experience. “The whole draft process, I knew it was either Jacksonville or Detroit (the teams with the first two overall picks). I was pretty content if we went to Florida because we’d be in the sun and we’d be good and we’d be getting tanned with some great weather, but really, I envisioned being in Detroit. My family’s here, I have so many people here and I grew up with some not-so-great Lions teams, and I wanted to be a part of a team with a culture that shifted things. A lot of people don’t believe me when I say I wanted to go to Detroit when there were options like Florida and other great football cities around the country, but I love the cold… Well, I don’t love the gloomy days, but I can bear them. But Detroit is the spot I always wanted to be. Even if that meant falling a spot in the draft, it was all worth it. It’s a big accolade when you can say you went No. 1 overall in the draft. But in the end, it’s also something that’s out of my control. Jacksonville passed on me. It is what it is, and I have this opportunity now with Detroit. Staying at home is the added bonus and blessing I am thankful for daily. Obviously, a lot of guys dream of the No. 1 overall pick title, but at the end of the day, as long as you’re in the right spot with the right people, I’m more concerned about longevity than where I was taken in the draft. So, that’s always been more of my concern — the long run.”
Hutchinson closed by saying he is motivated to make a run in the playoffs and wants to be on the team that gives Detroit a chance for a Super Bowl.
“After the way we closed out the season and ended it against the Packers, there’s a lot of hype about us right now and I love it,” Hutchinson concluded. “I think a little hype is good for the boys because we haven’t had that in a long time. Our goal is to win a Super Bowl, but now it feels a little more realistic. It feels like it’s in reach. I’m so motivated by the thought of being a part of a playoff run for my hometown team. I think about it every day. I mean, I take time to think about it every day because I think Detroit’s been dying for a Super Bowl and I know for the team to do that — or any team in the future that I’m on — it’s going to be a riot. I want to be a part of the team that finally did it.”
Vikings
Regarding Vikings WR Justin Jefferson being absent from the voluntary portion of minicamp, HC Kevin O’Connell said they would love to have him back at practice.
“For me, I hope to see him as soon as possible. I think our participation among our whole team has been so good that we’ve been able to get great work in. Would love to have him, obviously. But I think as we work towards minicamp, we’ll have a real clean cut plan of what that looks like, and hopefully get him some work, and I know a lot of guys will be excited to see him,” said O’Connell, via Kevin Seifert.
O’Connell mentioned he’s had “great dialogue” with Jefferson this offseason and will keep those discussions private.
“It’s one of those things that we’ve had great dialogue throughout the offseason. A lot of that will stay between Justin and I. But I just now that he’s getting work, wherever he’s spending his offseason, look forward to having him here when he decides to come ip and I know his teammates will be excited about that.”
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