NFC Notes: Dennis Allen, Matt LaFleur, Bears, Packers, Vikings

Bears

Bears DC Dennis Allen talked about rookie DT Jordan van den Berg‘s college game film and believes that there’s a lot to work with, even though he fell to the sixth round. 

He was one of these guys that for whatever reason, throughout the draft, kind of slipped through the cracks a little bit and sometimes that stuff happens,” Allen said, via Bears Wire. “He was a player that our scouting staff brought to us. And primarily our defensive line coaches, watched the tape and came to me and they were like, ‘Just do me this one favor. Watch this 60-play cutup on this player’. So when you watch the 60-play cutup, when you’re going through the draft process, there’s a lot of ‘what this guy can’t do’. Alright, well, we tried to focus on what this guy can do, and when you watch that 60-play cut up of the things that this player can do, it was pretty impressive. Just the movement, the skills, the power, the athleticism, the effort, the toughness, like all those things, the football character. I keep saying that the football character bled off the tape to us. He was a guy that we thought, ’Man, this guy really fits into what we want to do. So there’s certainly a lot of things that he still has to improve on. But there’s a skillset there, and there’s a football character there that we were excited about working with.”

Packers

  • Packers HC Matt LaFleur declined to comment on Josh Jacobs‘ arrest but did comment on the RB room: “I like the guys that we have, but you can never have enough,” per Jeremy Bergman.
  • Packers OT Zach Tom is making progress but likely won’t be back until training camp, per Weston Hodkiewicz. 
  • LaFleur says LB Zaire Franklin is wearing the green dot for the defense., per Matt Schneidman. 
  • LaFleur on TE Tucker Kraft’s ACL rehab: “He looks so good, you’d wanna put him out there … hopefully he’ll be ready to go by training camp or early in training camp.” per Schneidman.
  • LaFleur said they cut K Brandon McManus in part to put rookie Trey Smack in the best possible position. Also said they thought cutting McManus was doing right by him. Says Smack will get the majority of the reps. (Schneidman
  • When asked about RB MarShawn Lloyd’s current position on the roster, LaFleur said: “I think he’s done everything he can in his power to put himself in the best possible position, but he’s just going to have to go out there and prove it.” (Ryan Wood)

Vikings

  • The Vikings signed WR Jauan Jennings to a one-year, $8 million contract with $6.13 million fully guaranteed, including a $4.5 million signing bonus. (OTC)
  • Jennings can also earn up to $1.85 million through per-game roster bonuses.

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