Bears

Bears HC Ben Johnson has been hard on his players so far this offseason, and DE Montez Sweat spoke about his experience with Johnson as a coach.

“I don’t think there’s any way you can cut corners and expect to win on Sundays,” Johnson said, via ESPN’s Courtney Cronin. “Training camp’s a big part of that. Our guys understand that. They know what they’re walking into. I think our type of guys, they embrace it, they want it.”

“He worked the s— out of us,” Sweat said of Johnson. “We were all on one accord. Everybody was on the same page, and everything was really about winning. If it wasn’t about winning, then it was nonexistent.”

Lions

• Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated mentions that Lions’ new OC Drew Petzing is making a “real effort” to meld his system into what Ben Johnson ran from 2022 to 2024.
• Breer writes that Detroit is excited about WR Jameson Williams‘ trajectory after showing “effort and engagement” during OTAs and developing as a route runner.

Packers

Packers P Daniel Whelan averaged a career-high 51.7 yards per punt last season and is approaching his fourth year with the team. Green Bay LS Matt Orzech said the punter is learning “situational football” after focusing on booting the ball as hard as he could in previous years. 

“I think for him, because leg strength is not close to his limiting factor, it’s just been about him learning really situational football, situational punting,” Orzech said, via Mike Spofford of the team’s site. “Coming into the league, all he cared about was hitting the big ball, and then now he’s caring about choosing his spots, what he hits and when he hits it. Just having any degree of mastery of that, with his leg, is going to make his game go crazy. So I think every year he’s learned a little bit more, matured a little bit more, and the way he picks his shots, it shows.”

Orzech said Whelan has always been his biggest critic, which leads him to try to keep the punter “realistic” about his expectations. 

“No one has higher standards for Danny than Danny,” Orzech said. “So most of the time it’s just trying to keep him in a realistic point of view for himself. Again, with his leg talent, the sky’s the limit and he can do some crazy things.”