NFC Notes: Chase Claypool, Justin Fields, Jordan Love, Bears, Lions, Packers

Bears

Bears QB Justin Fields commented on the situation involving WR Chase Claypool and feels that Claypool is aware he made a mistake with the team.

“I think he knows that he kind of messed up by saying that, but I wish him nothing but the best,” Fields said, via Patrick Finley of the Chicago Sun-Times. “He’s a talented player, and he’s a great person, has a good heart and works really hard. Definitely going to be staying in touch with him regardless of what happens.”

Fields felt relief after the team snapped their 14-game losing streak dating back to last season and said it felt good to come away with a win.

“Just felt good. It felt good, Just seeing all the hard work pay off, especially getting a dub after everything that’s happened this year,” Fields said, via PFT. “Everything in the media. Everything on the outside. It just feels good when you can say that the hard work paid off, so again, I’m proud of everybody in the building. I love everybody on my team. Players, coaches, shoot, everybody upstairs. I might not even know them, but I love y’all. That feeling was, like I said before, a feeling that you never want it to end, and we just got to keep this momentum going and just get ready for Minnesota coming up next week.”

Lions

Lions HC Dan Campbell said he doesn’t expect rookie DB Brian Branch to play this weekend but doesn’t envision him being out for an extended period of time.

“(We) don’t feel as good about him this weekend but there again it is not looking like this long-term thing which is why we didn’t put him on IR,” Campbell said, via Lions Wire.

Packers

Packers HC Matt LaFleur challenged each of his players to improve one thing in their game. QB Jordan Love said his goal was to complete more passes.

“My thing is just completions,” Love said, via ESPN’s Rob Demovsky. “Going out there and getting positive plays and just finding completions on every play.”

LaFleur defended Love, saying his fundamentals have progressively gotten better which will lead to more positive results on gameday. He also adds that the team has taken more deep shots instead of quick passes that lead to a higher completion percentage.

“I think he’s come a long way in every [facet] in terms of the fundamentals of playing the position,” LaFleur said. “I think that always leads to better accuracy. I know what the completion percentage is. Quite frankly, we’ve thrown the ball further downfield than we ever have here. We’ve taken less, probably, of those quick run alerts, which definitely impact your completion percentage, and then there’s been times where we’ve dropped balls that should have been caught. I think overall he’s done a pretty good job. Are there times when he could be a little bit better? Yeah, absolutely. But that’s everybody.”

Packers QB coach Tom Clements added that young players, such as Love, tend to try to go for chunk plays in long-yardage situations instead of taking what the defense gives to them.

“In real long-yardage situations, younger guys — or even older guys — try to make the play downfield, and at times it’s best just to check it down and play the field-position game,” Clements said. “So a lot of things factor into that, but I think you can see that he’s an accurate passer.”