NFC Notes: Bears, Packers, Vikings

Bears

Bears’ HC Matt Nagy admitted that getting a good look at quarterbacks has not been easy this offseason due to the cancellation of the NFL Combine.

“When you’re there at the combine, you’re able to see these — particularly talking about the quarterbacks — throw, and see the ball come out of their hands, see their footwork,” Nagy said, via Kevin Fishbain of The Athletic. “You get to see every one of those guys, from the top guy to the bottom guy. Right now you just don’t have the luxury of doing that.”

Nagy also discussed himself and GM Ryan Pace navigating the pandemic affected offseason in order to continue monitoring the 2021 quarterback class.

“As Ryan has said, and everybody knows, we’ve been to a few pro days for these quarterbacks and other positions. It definitely helps. There are only so many of those you can do and see with everything else going on. What’s fair is that every other team is doing the same thing. So there are a lot of teams in this league right now that are always evaluating the quarterback position. Ryan and I are super excited about going through that right now together, and how we do it. It’s a challenge, but we look forward to it. There’s a lot of good quarterbacks in this draft.”

• Fishbain points out that Alabama QB Mac Jones was previously the favorite to go to Chicago with the No. 20 pick, yet now with all the talk about San Francisco taking him third overall that idea seems less possible. Fishbain also adds that the Bears have seen Jones workout twice already.
• With all the rumors about where the top quarterbacks in the draft may be picked or where they could fall, Fishbain says that the Bears should prepare for the possibility of Ohio State QB Justin Fields dropping far enough for them to take a chance on him.
• Outside of the top prospects, Fishbain comments on Stanford QB Davis Mills, who the Bears have also seen throw this offseason. The team also attended the pro days of Florida QB Kyle Trask and Texas A&M QB Kellen Mond.

Packers

An NFL agent tells Rob Demovsky that the Packers and GM Brian Gutekunst have reached out to him about a client, but Green Bay’s cap situation is preventing them from doing anything until they get some resolution with QB Aaron Rodgers or another player. 

“I don’t know who’s really calling shots there, whether it’s (chief contract negotiator) Russ (Ball), Gutey, (Mark) Murphy, whoever. But it’s screwing the Packers in a lot of ways right now because there’s just no cap space. They’ve called me about one of my players and said ‘Hey, this is where we are now, and until we get something big done — hint, hint — we don’t have any space.’ It’s kind of like a lose-lose situation right now. That’s what [is] surprising to me is, you’d think there would be a middle-ground situation to get something done,” the agent explained.

Vikings

• The Vikings recently had a virtual interview with North Dakota State OL Dillon Radunz. (Darren Wolfson)
• The Vikings attended the Pro Day for Merrimack G Sam Cooper. (Justin Melo)