Bears

Bears S C.J. Gardner-Johnson has been on five teams in seven seasons and is thankful to have yet another opportunity, this time in Chicago.

“Your mental is f—ed up when ball is taken away,” Gardner-Johnson recently told ESPN’s Courtney Cronin. “We’re guys. We’re taught to be tough and strong and courageous from 10 years old to however long you play football, so you never really have a chance to sit back and think. Me sitting at home, I had to really look myself in the mirror. And it’s like, it’s really on me.”

“I love C.J.,” Eagles HC Nick Sirianni said of CGJ, who had two stints in Philly. “We’ve had some great times together. Been to one Super Bowl together, won another one together. I always loved the emotion he played with and how he went about his business. I miss him, and he’s playing good football.”

Of all his releases, it wasn’t one from the Super Bowl-winning Eagles that hurt him most. Instead, it was being let go by the Texans that left him quietly saying Houston had “lost a gem.”

“I know what’s best for my team,” Texans HC DeMeco Ryans said at the time of the release. “Coming from me, the head coach, it was the best for our team. That’s why I made the decision.”

“In Philly, I won a championship already,” he said. “Ain’t nothing to talk about. We’re already in history. You’ve got to be vulnerable with your situations,” Gardner-Johnson noted. “The word accountability is one of the biggest things for me right now. I had to learn to take accountability and learn what accountability was. The older you get, things get challenging. I had to learn from my experiences. I had to change who I was, and I wouldn’t say necessarily on the field or off the field. More so my take on certain situations I was facing in life. I’m happy. I’m at peace that I can be myself in a building where I’m not always looked at and scrutinized for every little move. Everywhere I’ve been, you peep the temperature of the room. You should have that same treatment [from the team] when that person’s doing good or when that person’s mentally struggling. I feel like here, the treatment has been the same regardless if you’re doing good, doing bad. I see it through the players. I see how they treat them and you see how the guys react when they’re doing their thing.”

• Bears WR D.J. Moore was fined $11,593 for taunting.

Lions

Lions HC Dan Campbell spoke about challenging opposing defenses on fourth down, and noted that while it hasn’t worked lately, it won’t change anything about the way the offense operates going forward.

“Going into it, we liked those plays. So, no, I wouldn’t say necessarily that’s going to have an effect on me,” Campbell said. “You always want to convert them, and we’ve had a lot of conversions here. It just didn’t work out here today.”

• Regarding Lions WR Amon-Ra St. Brown’s ankle injury, Campbell said he doesn’t expect St. Brown to miss an excessive amount of time: “I don’t feel like this is long, long-term, so that’s the good news. But that doesn’t mean it won’t be here for… It could be a week or two, maybe, if we’re lucky.” (Adam Schefter)
• The MRI and other tests confirmed a low-ankle sprain with no structural damage. (Ian Rapoport)
• Campbell later said there is “nothing new” about St Brown’s injury and said he remains day-to-day. (Birkett)
• Campbell on C Frank Ragnow‘s failed physical: “Of course, we’re disappointed just because Frank’s such a good dude and a great teammate and a productive player. But at the same time, he’s injured, too. …So, you quickly move off of that. …We’re onto Dallas now.” (Pouncy)
• Lions S Brian Branch was fined $23,186 for a hit on a defenseless player, LB Jack Campbell was fined $17,389 for a hip-drop tackle, and OL Dan Skipper was fined $6,917 for taunting.

Packers

Dontayvion Wicks was critical in the Packers’ Thanksgiving win over the Lions, recording six receptions for 94 yards and two touchdowns. Green Bay HC Matt LaFleur thinks they couldn’t have won without Wicks. 

“We don’t win that game without him. Just to have him kind of just stay even through all the ups and downs… it’s exactly the Wicks that I know,” LaFleur said, via Wes Hodkiewicz.