Bears

Bears LB coach Richard Smith talked about how important LB T.J. Edwards is to the defense and culture and called him one of the team’s leaders.

“T.J. is a great man, I’ve said if he wasn’t married, you’d want him to marry your daughter,” Smith said, via Bears Wire. “He’s a great human being, he’s very smart, there’s no ego to him, he’s confident, he’s a great teammate. He’s a smart football player and once you lost him, it hurts you because he’s one of your guys as a starter who can play all three positions for you. Once you lose a guy like that, that hurts you, but you have to move on. It’s part of the game. Right now he’s working really hard in his rehab and he’s coming along fine. He’s in every meeting, he’s one of the leaders. It hurts when you lose one of your starters but you’re always hopeful one of your backups can come in and perform as well.”

Lions

Lions DE Aidan Hutchinson feels that the window for Detroit to win a Super Bowl remains open despite the 2025 season not going the way they planned.

“I mean, look, we know we’re in a window,” Hutchinson said, via the Detroit Free Press. “So every year is kind of the same, the same intensity with the guys we’ve got.”

“I feel like heading into Year 5, I do feel complete, in a sense of pass rush,” Hutchinson added on his own improvements. “Your pass rush kind of evolves and it grows throughout the years. There are wrinkles that you put in, but I feel like I have an answer for everything now. I feel like the knowledge of the game, knowledge of pass rush, my own development, is at a point where I feel very confident.”

Packers

• Packers DE Micah Parsons went into detail about the Packers’ rule about players coming back from an ACL injury: “We have a pretty strong 9-month rule. It’s just all about just do the research and the data. There’s no good outcomes with players coming back early from an ACL, especially if you’re having other things getting fixed up.” (Ryan Wood)
• Parsons raved about DE Lukas Van Ness: “I think by the end of this season, if Luke stays healthy, I think he’ll probably be the (fan) favorite.” (Matt Schneidman)
• Parsons also outlined his developing relationship with head trainer Nate Weir: “He called me more than anybody in my family, texted me more than anybody in my family. This guy, he probably became my best friend throughout this process.” (Schneidman)
• Packers QB Tyrod Taylor on his first impressions of the city: “It’s a quiet town, very peaceful. Not a lot of traffic, which is a breath of fresh air from where I’ve been the last four years.” (Weston Hodkiewicz)