NFC Notes: Bears, Packers, Vikings

Bears

The Bears knew early on they would be auctioning off the No. 1 pick, and Bears GM Ryan Poles quickly decided the most appealing return would be a combination of picks and players. So when the Panthers called — becoming the first team to do so — they found out quickly they couldn’t get to the top with just picks. They ended up sending WR D.J. Moore after the Bears identified him, DE Brian Burns and DT Derrick Brown as players they were interested in.

“Usually young teams like that, they want all picks,” Panthers GM Scott Fitterer said via The Athletic. “In (Poles’) situation, I think it helped that they had some cap space they needed to fill. And then they have a young quarterback that they need to figure out is he the guy going forward.”

There had been a lot of speculation that the Bears wouldn’t want to move outside the top five given the strength of some of the other defensive prospects in this class. But Poles believes they’ll still be able to get one of their top-graded prospects at No. 9 overall.

“Play the percentage game, it’s probably a chance one (quarterback) slides in, but … there’s different tiers in the first round,” Poles said. “There’s always that cut-off of ‘elite’ and then it’s ‘very good starters.’ I know we’ll be in range for the players that are going to be in that first round that kind of hit that value bucket and for our team are going to make us better.”

Packers

Packers GM Brian Gutekunst said they’re “really excited” about Keisean Nixon returning both as a kick returner and a nickel cornerback.

“We’re really excited about not only the return stuff, but we think he’s going to see a lot more time in the nickel this year, and we’re all really excited about that because when he was in there, he was impactful,” Gutekunst said, via PackersWire.com.

Vikings

PFT’s Mike Florio said the Vikings potentially trading QB Kirk Cousins to the 49ers was a hot topic at the NFL combine in Indianapolis, as transcribed by Vikings Wire.

“Apparently at the scouting combine, there was some chatter, there was some noise among people within the broader league structure — not media but people in the league — about Cousins being traded to the 49ers. That was a hot topic at one point in Indianapolis.”