NFC Notes: Bears, Lions, Packers

Bears

• Bears DB coach James Rowe is leaving the team to become the passing game coordinator at USF. (Courtney Cronin)
• Bears QB Justin Fields is not a lock to play Sunday, with Bears HC Matt Eberflus saying he and GM Ryan Poles would have a conversation regarding who is playing this weekend. (Kevin Seifert)
• Eberflus said the health of the team is more important than Fields’ potential rushing record: “Yeah, that’s important. It’s an important factor, but it’s not end-all, be-all. Certainly the health of our team is the most important thing.” (Cronin)

Lions

Lions CB Jeff Okudah was limited to playing just 17 of the team’s 51 defensive snaps last week. Lions HC Dan Campbell explained what led to the limited playing time for Okudah. 

“No, I would say it was a couple of things last week we talked about,” Campbell said, via LionsWire.com. “I thought he came out ready to work. It was always about getting Mike Hughes more plays. I mean, Mike earned his right to play now too. And Okudah took some gunner reps for us because Mike was going to play more on the outside than probably Jeff was, and so they both played. No, listen, Jeff’s good. He’s helping us, man. He’s contributing.”

Packers

The Packers have surprisingly rattled off four straight wins and are a win over the Lions away from securing a playoff spot. 

“It feels really special, it does,” Packers QB Aaron Rodgers said, via ESPN.com. “It’s been an interesting year. It hasn’t been my best football at times, but I’ve been asked to step up my leadership and be someone the guys can count on to keep it together, even when it doesn’t seem like there’s anything to play for or we don’t have a chance to make a run. There’s been a lot of special moments throughout the year.

“It didn’t look great for a while. And I was resigned to some of those realities being possible. And when I took my mind there, I had a peace about it. I had a peace about all of it. Whatever was supposed to happen, I was surrendered to that reality — with also the resolute mindset that we could still get back in this thing. And I think that’s what I’m most proud of, for myself and our team, is that there were a lot of different things that could happen, and we stuck together and we put ourselves in position to do something special.”

“I had faith, much like at 4-6 I think in ’16,” Rodgers added. “Sometimes you’ve got to fool yourself a little bit into believing a little bit more.”