Bears
NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah says he recently spoke with a source who mentioned the Bears as a potential team to watch for RB Bijan Robinson.
“Somebody told me don’t sleep on Bijan (Robinson) with (the Bears),” Jeremiah said, via Bears Wire. “Even though they have some backs they can line up and play with, they don’t have anyone like (Robinson),” Jeremiah added. “That would be one I wouldn’t sleep on with them.”
- Aaron Wilson reports that LSU CB Mekhi Garner has worked out privately for the Bears, Chiefs, and Patriots. He has also visited with the Cowboys and Saints.
Lions
Lions GM Brad Holmes was head over heels for WR Jameson Williams pretty soon after turning on his tape last year.
“There are certain guys you watch where you get a reaction and you throw the remote down or something like that,” Holmes said via ESPN’s Kevin Seifert. “I’m watching him and dropping the remote.”
The catch was Williams had torn his ACL in the national champion. While ACL tears have a better success rate than they used to, it still meant Williams was looking at missing nearly his whole rookie season. Coming over from the Rams, Holmes’ experience with the failed selection of QB Sam Bradford made him philosophically conservative about injuries. But Williams was so good it forced him to reconsider, and he ultimately made a major trade up to select him.
“I was like, ‘Can I have this approach all the time throughout my entire career? And is it a lazy way of thinking?'” Holmes said. “Medical advancements [when Bradford was picked were] different than they are now. So, I’m trying to be open-minded. I had to remove [Williams] from that box and look at myself in the mirror.”
Panthers
New Panthers WR DJ Chark spoke in depth about getting back in shape, recovering from his injury, and his hopes to get his career back on track in Carolina.
“I’m glad that I’m able to come in year one of this coaching change, this staff, being here so I can help build,” Chark said, via Panthers.com. “But also feel like I’m on the same page with the guys, you know? Everybody is experiencing this new right now, even the guys that were currently here. So if you know you’re going to be experiencing something new, I’d rather be experiencing it now with my teammates as opposed to coming into something later. So I think that’s kind of what I imagined, what I envisioned when I think about Carolina right now.”
“When I had the surgery, the surgical repair materials used in the surgery caused an effect on the bone, which I didn’t understand at the time. We didn’t know,” Chark said of his surgery. “So the whole training camp (in 2022 with the Lions), I’m dealing with it, it feels good, but it feels a little sore. And then after Week 3 against Minnesota, before halftime, I got tackled, and it feels like I kind of twisted my ankle a little bit. I came back the next week to practice for the upcoming week and just couldn’t really run on it — I was in pain. So initially, we kind of thought it was like a sprain.”
“The material caused it to weaken over time, and my body didn’t react to something, but I didn’t know then,” Chark continued. “So I end up missing a total of six games. And I was just at the point, mentally, that I wanted to play. I knew I had just missed the whole season (in 2021). And I was like, no matter what, I’m going to go out there and play through the pain and tape it up. Practice every day, and didn’t miss practice the remaining eight games. I didn’t necessarily have to have the (most recent) surgery. But if I want to get back to the best version of myself, and as far as health-wise, it was best to go ahead and do it. Now I’m in the process of recovery. Feel pretty good. I’m still working towards where I want to be, but I feel really confident in it.”
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