NFC Notes: Bears, Lions, Packers

Bears

Bears TE Cole Kmet continued what’s been an up and down season in Week 13. He had a nice 24-yard catch down the sideline but also had two drops on the day. 

“The thing for a young player is not letting that affect the rest of his game,” Bears TE coach Clancy Barone said via the Athletic’s Kevin Fishbain. “Those are going to happen. Probably the only guy that’s never happened to is the guy that’s never had a ball thrown to him. I think the big thing is looking to see, ‘Can he fight his way through that?’ And he did, he came back in the latter part of the game and had two pretty tough catches where he had a guy on the defense hanging all over him and he had to make two pretty good catches there toward the end of the game to help us try to come down and score again.”

• Bears’ DL Akiem Hicks spoke about his return this week against the Packers: “I take rivalry games very seriously. A coach told me once that you can’t play well against your division opponents, what good are you to the team? And I take that to heart. We’re gonna play you twice a year, you’re going to try to play your best ball.” (Kevin Fishbain)
• Hicks also commented on the possibility that his time with the Bears may be coming to an end: “I think that’s the unfortunate reality. The unfortunate reality of our business sometimes is that no matter what you do, no matter what situation you put yourself in, all good things come to an end.”
• According to Aaron Wilson, the Bears tried out free agent James Smith on Friday.

Packers

• Packers’ OLB coach Mike Smith says that OLB Za’Darius Smith is ready and excited about making his return from injury: “I’m sure he is feeling better, but he still has some time to go. He just needs to take his time and make sure when he’s back, he’s back for good.” (Ryan Wood)
• The Green Bay Packers announced that TE coach Justin Outten will not be in attendance this Sunday due to COVID-19 protocols, with passing game coordinator Luke Getsy and offensive quality control coach Ryan Mahaffey taking over his duties.