NFC Notes: Bears, Giants, Packers

Bears

Bears RB Jordan Howard admitted that he has struggled with pass-catching since High School, but this is something he’s committed to improving.

“It started being a problem in high school, just not having my hands in the right position,” said Howard, via Dan Weiderer of the Chicago Tribune. “I didn’t work on it that much in college because we didn’t really throw to the backs that much. But I’m going to fix it.”

Giants

On Wednesday, the Giants used a 2019 third-round pick on Western Michigan CB Sam Beal.

Regarding Beal, Giants GM Dave Gettleman says they think he’s a long and athletic cornerback who should ascend for them in the coming years.

“We’re very, very excited about getting Sam in the draft,” Gettleman said, via Giants.com. “He’s long, he’s very athletic for a corner, he has all the physical skills, he can carry the vertical, he has very good play speed, he shows instincts out there, he has ball awareness, he doesn’t panic when the ball is thrown at his guy, and he is a very willing tackler. We just feel it gives us a really talented young kid with the ability to ascend.”

As for the decision to use a future pick on Beal, Gettleman explained that they feel like they’re simply getting an advance on the selection.

“We feel like we’re getting our third-round pick now,” Gettleman said. “We discussed it at length yesterday, and had a great conversation. We basically had a draft meeting in the office, with people on the speaker phone who had seen him. It was a very thorough conversation.”

Packers

The Packers claimed DE/OLB Chris Odom off of waivers at the start of the regular season last year, which left him with the difficult task of learning the team’s defensive scheme in a matter of days.

“It was a little hectic because I went from a 4-3 defensive end to a stand-up outside linebacker learning drops, coverages, and a whole new defense on the fly,” Odom said, via Packers.com. “I couldn’t learn the whole defense in a week. I had to learn what plays we were going to run game-to-game. It wasn’t easy, but I stuck to it.”

Odom says he feels much better prepared after having a full offseason, even though he’s learning another new system.

“I feel I have a better jumpstart on being here as far as having more time to learn new scheme, the playbook and everything,” said Odom. “So it’s definitely going a whole lot better. Instead of learning during the season and learning week-to-week, game-to-game, now I have the offseason to have the proper time and preparation for the new defense.”