NFC Notes: Bears, Lions, Packers, Aaron Rodgers, Brian Gutekunst

Bears

• Bears DB Jaylon Johnson said he isn’t concerned about entering the final year of his contract and feels like he needed to prove himself at a higher level last season: “Honestly, for me, it used to be a lot of pressure. I would even say for me going into my third year, I felt like that was the year for me to put myself out there to be able to have a new contract, to be able to re-up. For me, it’s just about going out and being who I am,” via Courtney Cronin. 
• Johnson is focusing on helping Chicago win in 2023: “With winning comes paychecks, and I think at the end of the day, I need to focus on winning. That’s what I’m worried about going into Year 4.” (Cronin)
• Bears DB coach Jon Hoke said Johnson has remained in contact with the team over the offseason: “He Zooms with the meetings and stuff like that. He texts me almost every other day. He’ll ask questions because he watches practice tape. I think he’ll be here sooner than later.” (Kevin Fishbain)
• Bears OL Cody Whitehair said he was informed that he was moving back to the center position this offseason: “It’s kind of like riding a bike.” (Cronin)

Lions

• Lions HC Dan Campbell said RB David Montgomery and LB Malcolm Rodriguez didn’t practice on Thursday after suffering a minor injury last week. Both injuries are not considered long-term, per Kyle Meinke. 
• Campbell is hopeful DT Levi Onwuzurike (back) will return during training camp but wouldn’t put a timeline on his recovery, via Colton Pouncey. 
• Campbell refused to comment on if they have any interest in free-agent WR DeAndre Hopkins and said he likes their receivers: “I’m not going to comment on that one, but I like our receiver room. I think we got a good mix of different types of guys,” per Dave Birkett. 

Packers

Although Aaron Rodgers has moved on to quarterback the Jets in 2023, the nature of his exit from the Packers is still a subject of discussion. A year ago, Rodgers signed a three-year, $150 million deal that seemed like it would pave the course for him to retire in Green Bay. Instead, the two sides split, even if it happened later than expected after the Packers drafted QB Jordan Love in the first round in 2020. That decision by GM Brian Gutekunst appears to be what lies at the heart of the split. 

“We didn’t win the Super Bowl,” Rodgers said via the Athletic’s Matt Schneidman. “They had their guy in waiting. Unless things changed, I felt like — that’s why I said what I said — there was a possibility they were gonna move on. I knew that (Love) was always a possibility, that they would wanna go, ‘You know what? We tried hard. We tried to win a championship. We had a good team, but now it might be time to go with Jordan, move some contract stuff around and do that.’”

How exactly the two sides got to their breaking point remains a little bit unclear. Schneidman cites a source associated with the team who says the Packers were unsatisfied with Rodgers’ commitment level this past season, including skipping voluntary OTAs where he could have built chemistry with a young receiving corps. Rodgers takes umbrage with that characterization. 

“When I’m in, I’m all-in, and you wanna ride with offseason workouts?” Rodgers said. “I won MVP without doing offseason workouts. Like, was my commitment any less then? I’d say not at all. The way that I come back to work, not just physically in good shape but mentally refreshed, is the best thing for me to have the season I wanted to have during those in Green Bay. I think that’s just a cop-out written to try and find something to disparage me about that, honestly, when you know what offseason workouts are really about, it’s completely ridiculous.”

Still, the Packers began the offseason ready to commit to another year with Rodgers. Rodgers said they told him, “We want you to retire a Packer. We’ll figure everything else out, but we want you to be here.” But then he and Gutekunst were unable to link up in person in January when Gutekunst was in California for the NFLPA bowl. The lack of communication continued into February and March, with Rodgers again citing the lack of cell service at his home. 

“I have zero or one bar at the house, so you call me — sometimes it goes through, most of the time it drops and doesn’t go through,” Rodgers said. “Everybody who knows me, when I’m out west, they know that’s how to get a hold of me. So you can say whatever you want about that, but that’s the f—— truth.

“Before I went in the darkness, I hit ’em up and said, ‘Hey, there’s some stuff swirling around here. We should get together, you, me and Matt [LaFleur].’”

Rodgers reiterated he entered his darkness retreat leaning toward retirement but came out feeling good about both options. He talked to his agent who told him the Packers had been shopping him, at which point Rodgers told his agent to tell Gutekunst he wanted to be traded to the Jets. He disputes the assertion from Gutekunst that the GM couldn’t get a hold of him. 

“Did Brian text me more than I texted him? Yeah, but did I ghost him? No,” Rodgers said. “I texted him back. There was back-and-forths that we had and so this is the story you wanna go with? You’re gonna stand on this hill of austerity and say that arguably in the conversation of the best player in your franchise history, you’re gonna say I couldn’t get a hold of him and that’s why we had to move on?

“Like, c’mon man. Just tell the truth, you wanted to move on. You didn’t like the fact that we didn’t communicate all the time. Like, listen, I talk to the people that I like.”

• The same source who told Schneidman the Packers weren’t happy with Rodgers’ commitment last offseason added that early in the 2021 offseason, Rodgers’ agent David Dunn called Packers president Mark Murphy asking him to either fire Gutekunst or trade Rodgers.
• That was the year Rodgers stayed away all offseason before reporting for the start of training camp and airing his issues with the front office, which included a lack of communication from Gutekunst. Rodgers told Schneidman Gutekunst and others made some initial effort to improve things: “It still wasn’t anywhere near what I’ve already enjoyed here with the Jets in just a few short weeks.”
• Schneidman adds the Packers believed both sides had moved past the issues in 2021 but Rodgers told him he thought director of football operations Russ Ball was the only one who took his message to heart: “Russ definitely made an effort to be more seen, to be a better communicator, to be around more, to interact with the guys more, and I really appreciated his effort to grow and to listen to some of the things I was saying and try and make the culture and the place a better environment.”