NFC Notes: Bears, Lions, Packers, Vikings

Bears

Bears RB Tarik Cohen spoke about missing all of last season after sustaining a torn ACL in 2020, explaining that he won’t return until he feels fully capable of playing at his usual standard. 

“I’m scared to come back a different player not the same when I was,” Cohen said, via BearsWire. “I won’t let myself come back before I’m ready and before I feel I can put the same performances on that I was putting on before I got hurt.”

• The Chicago Bears announced that they’ve hired Justin Hinds as our assistant DL coach and Kevin Koch as a coaching assistant.
• Aaron Wilson reports that the Bears moved on from director of player personnel Josh Lucas and director of football administration Joey Laine.

Lions

Lions GM Brad Holmes called their coaching staff being involved in the 2022 Senior Bowl a “critical phase” of their offseason. 

“This is a critical phase in our process. It’s all a puzzle that you want to put together by April. It just so happens that this piece of the puzzle has a little more oomph because of the opportunity that we have coaching the game,” said Holmes, via Eric Woodyard of ESPN. “So, it’s a little more firepower, but having success just getting all of our questions answered, and we might not get every question answered, but it’s just a great start, both on the field from a tangible standpoint, from a player development standpoint, but obviously, No. 1, evaluations.”

Lions DBs coach Aubrey Pleasant is grateful for the “hands-on experience” with prospects at the Senior Bowl. 

“Two things: You get hands-on experience with the young men, not only in the classroom but you also get the hands-on experience on the football field and that’s priceless. That’s deeper than any evaluation, that’s deeper than any scout could be able to tell you because you’re able to get it for your own personal experience,” Pleasant said.

Lions OLBs coach Kelvin Sheppard said he hopes to have better results in future seasons in order to avoid returning to the Senior Bowl. 

“I don’t want this to be misinterpreted, so I’m going to make this really clear what I’m about to say. I thoroughly enjoy being here and getting this experience, but I’m glad I got it out the way my first year because I never plan on being back here coaching these teams,” said Sheppard. “So, let me get that out the way and I say that sincerely because you have to be at a certain position, in certain draft order to be here as a coach and it’s something I never plan on doing never again. So, now that that’s out the way, it is a great experience getting hands-on, being able to coach these guys and really seeing what makes them tick. Seeing who can soak in things.”

Packers

• Packers HC Matt LaFleur said “there’s no updates” regarding QB Aaron Rodgers status: “Everybody in that organization, everybody in that city certainly would love to see him retire a Packer.” (Stephen Watson)
• Rodgers confirmed that he has not made any decision on retirement yet: “I have not made any decision yet. I’ve been easing into the offseason and excited about being here tonight. It feels like a dream, surreal for sure, to be sitting here as a four-time MVP.” (Rob Demovsky)
• Field Yates reports that the Packers are hiring Byron Storer as their assistant special teams coach. Storer held the same position for the Raiders last year under Rich Bisaccia and was actually college teammates with Aaron Rodgers at Cal.

Vikings

• Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer writes his impression of the new Vikings’ regime is that they have “good feelings” about QB Kirk Cousins.
• Breer mentions it would be “really hard” for Minnesota to move from Cousins, given that his $35 million base salary for the 2022 season is fully guaranteed.
• As for a potential trade, Breer says it’s unlikely Cousins would net the Vikings much in terms of trade compensation, considering that a team acquiring him would need $35 million of cap space and would have him under contract for just one year.
• The Athletic’s Chad Graff says it’s worth keeping in mind that while the Vikings may indeed be high on Cousins like the leaks the past week suggest, they have to sell that idea in order to maintain any kind of trade leverage. Still, he thinks there’s only about a 25 percent chance Cousins is traded.  
• PFN’s Aaron Wilson reports the Vikings are expected to hire former Broncos assistant OL coach Chris Kuper as their next offensive line coach.