Lions

The Lions are coming off a narrow 31-24 win over the Jets in Week 3. Detroit HC Dan Campbell praised their defense for holding on to the victory for them with a critical takeaway. 

“I’m just proud of that defensive staff. I’m proud of those players over there and as a whole,” Campbell said, via Eric Woodyard of ESPN. “That was a good win.”

Detroit is now 2-1 to start the season, including a one-point 31-30 win over the Saints in Week 1. Campbell is glad to have such exciting games early in the year. 

“I’ll tell you what, you’re coming to our games? You’re loving this now. I mean, these are exciting games. These are exciting,” Campbell said. “Come down to the wire. Nobody’s leaving early. And that was the point. We’re not going to let anybody leave early this year.“

Hall of Fame RB Barry Sanders attended their recent win over New York. Lions RB Jahmyr Gibbs said Sanders being at their games increases his level of play.

“Every time he’s here, I gotta step up my game a little bit,” Gibbs said. “So, to be in the same conversation as him is humbling. I’m blessed to be in it. It’s somebody I’ve looked up to for a long time.”

Packers

The Packers made veteran additions to their offensive line with Kevin Zeitler, Laken Tomlinson and Mekhi Becton. Green Bay HC Matt LaFleur thinks their experience will help calm down their younger players like third-year G Jordan Morgan and second-year OT Anthony Belton. 

“I think it just calms down the O-line,” LaFleur said, via Mike Spofford of the team’s site. “When you have veterans in there who have been through the war, certainly we’ve got young guys playing beside them, that can definitely settle things down. We’re just trying to get these guys integrated, get them up to speed, ramp them up and see what they can do.”

Packers QB Jordan Love thinks their veteran additions will help their practice. 

“In the NFL you can never beat experience,” Love said. “Experience, banked reps, and just having gone through a lot of different things. We’ll see. We’ll see how these guys do when we get to practice, and get to games, and go from there. But obviously they played a lot of ball, they understand the game.”

Love wants their offense to play “complementary” and lean on their rushing attack to open up the pass. 

“I think it will help a lot of things,” Love said. “We always talk about having a complementary offense. Being able to lean on the run game is going to take some of the pressure off the pass protection and not let the D-line just kinda know we’re in pass situations. It’s something that we’ve got to improve.”

Vikings

When appearing on SNY’s NYG411, Connor Hughes said he heard rumblings that J.J. McCarthy wasn’t pleased with how well Sam Darnold performed with the Vikings after he got hurt as a rookie in 2024 and some “jealousy” emerged, similar to when Nick Foles led the Eagles to a Super Bowl in 2017 following Carson Wentz‘s injury. 

“I had heard rumblings, a lot of this, that when Sam Darnold had the season that he did after J.J. McCarthy went down, that didn’t sit particularly well with J.J. because J.J. was shaping up to be the Vikings’ starting quarterback as a rookie,” Hughes said. “He had shown promise his first year, there were moments that looked good and then when he got hurt and was missing the season, and Sam took over, it wasn’t necessarily like, ‘I believe in Sam. Let’s go Sam. Let’s go get it.’ It kind of reminded me a little bit of the Carson Wentz/Nick Foles situation in Philadelphia where there was some jealousy and that jealousy rubbed off on some teammates.”

Hughes said McCarthy’s relationship with Minnesota began to deteriorate after he couldn’t replicate Darnold’s production the following season. 

“When the Vikings decided to let Sam walk and roll with J.J. and it didn’t just immediately pick up where they left off with Sam, I think that started to deteriorate. J.J.’s a little bit of an eccentric person. He has rubbed people the wrong way at times because he’s a little unique and interested in different things,” Hughes said.