Bears
- Bears GM Ryan Poles: “What I like really about the pairing so far of free agency and the draft is I do believe that the supply of players is matching our needs. So there are going to be good opportunities.” (Adam Jahns)
- Bears HC Ben Johnson was asked about his valuation of RB D’Andre Swift from their time together in Detroit: “He’s an explosive athlete. There’s a number of things that he can do both in the running game and in the passing game. I do think he can help ignite an offense because he’s got that playmaking ability, so it’ll be fun to start to work together again here this springtime with him.” (Courtney Cronin)
- Poles implied they are planning to spend decent money on the offensive line in free agency. (Gregg Rosenthal)
- Poles when asked if Johnson will have more personnel input than Matt Eberflus: “No, I think it’ll remain the same. We’re constantly talking about how we need to go about improving our football team and adding to our football team, so those conversations will be happening almost on a daily basis, which is important in any relationship between the front office and the coaching staff, specifically a GM and a head coach.” (Courtney Cronin)
Lions
Lions S Kerby Joseph led the league with nine interceptions but was one of the most notable snubs from the Pro Bowl. Still, Joseph feels like he is the best safety in the league and commented on Detroit coming up short this season with several injuries on the defensive side of the ball.
“I feel like I’m the best,” Joseph said recently on The Jim Rome Show. “And I’m always going to strive to continue to be the best. Honestly, I don’t really have an issue with it. How it all shaped out … it’s not unexpected that that happened. I kinda already knew something was gonna happen with that. I don’t have an issue with the Pro Bowl, honestly. It’s a great event, it’s also great for the fans and stuff. Shoutout to the guys that made the Pro Bowl. It just wasn’t my year, that’s fine. I wasn’t really trying to go to the Pro Bowl this year, anyway, I wanted the Super Bowl, so it’s cool.”
“You see the stats,” Joseph continued. “We went through a lot of adversity, especially on defense; we had a lot of injuries and stuff like that. Like I said it in training camp, I told the whole team, I told the whole DB group, ‘Man, it’s going to take all of us to win.’ We went as far as we could. And we had an amazing season. I feel like I grew as a person, I grew with my leadership skills and my communication skills.”
- Lions GM Brad Holmes said they’re not ignoring the need to add pass rushers to the roster: “Pass rush will never be ignored and never has been but those guys are hard to find.” (Eric Woodyard)
- Holmes says they’ve gotten to the planning stages financially with DE Aidan Hutchinson, who is due for an extension: “So when you talk about adding another (pass rusher), it’s like, ‘well all right, can you financially add another one?'” (Woodyard)
Packers
- Packers GM Brian Gutekunst says team president Mark Murphy told him he could trade their first-round pick even with the draft being in Green Bay. Gutekunst wants more draft picks and said the following when asked about trading for a first-round pass rusher: “Depends who that edge rusher would be.” (Matt Scheneidman)
- Gutekunst on the team’s wide receiver group: “Obviously Christian (Watson) is going to miss some time. … We’ll see where that goes. That’s going to create opportunities for guys on the roster that I’m excited for. We have a long way to go with free agency and the draft.” (Wes Hodkiewicz)
- Gutekunst on WR Jayden Reed: “He may be a little limited through some of the offseason stuff but he should be ok by the time we get to training camp.” (Aaron Nagler)
- Gutekunst on the defensive front: “We need to affect the quarterback with four. How we do that remains to be seen. We had good moments last year but just needs to be more consistent. … That’s gotta get better if we’re going to accomplish the goals we have this season.” (Hodkiewicz)
- On bringing back K Brandon McManus: “Yeah, we’d love to. We’re working towards that end. We’ll see where that goes.” (Nagler)
- When asked if CB Jaire Alexander will be back next season, Gutekunst said: “We’ll see. We’re working through that. He certainly could be. We gotta get him out there more… Not being able to be out there at his best has frustrated him and that has obviously frustrated our football team too.” (Nagler)
- Adam Rittenberg reports that Syracuse is set to hire Packers assistant Myles White as wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator.
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