NFC Notes: Hendon Hooker, Bears, Lions, Packers

Bears

Former Bears K Robbie Gould revealed during a recent interview that the team tried to trade for him while he was a member of the 49ers back in 2019, adding that he would be willing to play for the team today if he received the call. 

“Ryan Pace tried to get me back in a trade a few years afterward,” Gould said on ESPN 1000. “When the Eddy Pineiro trade happened because I was holding out from San Francisco…For sure, if they called and said, ‘Hey, we want you to play for us,’ I’d do it in a heartbeat,”

Lions

The Lions plan to be patient with third-round QB Hendon Hooker, who is still recovering from a torn ACL and is behind veteran QB Jared Goff, who has two more years at least on his contract. Hooker, however, is trying to do everything he can regardless of his injury status to learn and prepare for when his shot to start comes. 

“Entering this first year is the same motto, same mentality I’ve had all my life, let’s get better every day,” Hooker said via ESPN’s Eric Woodyard. “You’ll never stay the same; you either get better or you get worse, and I don’t wanna have any decline in my game so I’m continuing to work my tail off, day-to-day, mental reps, taking reps behind the quarterbacks that are in and just playing the game in my mind until I can actually get out there, but I’m still preparing and I’m hungry. I’m ready to compete.”

Packers

Packers RB Aaron Jones is embracing the underdog role as the team undergoes replacing QB Aaron Rodgers.

“I’m used to it, being an underdog or being slept on, personally, so it’s a position I love to be in,” Jones said, via the team’s website. “Nobody sees you coming at all. Everybody’s relaxed when they’re thinking about you, or they don’t think you’re capable of it.”

Packers QB Jordan Love has gotten work in this offseason with WR Romeo Doubs and said his goal is to get every member of the offense up to speed around him.

“My main focus is to try to bring guys along,” Love said. “Trying to give everybody else confidence in themselves, confidence that I believe in them, I trust them and just try to bring guys up. I never want to be negative around guys. We all want the same goal. We all want to be great.”

Packers DL Kenny Clark said the team will also be placing an emphasis on starting faster and controlling the game at the line of scrimmage.

“We definitely gotta start faster,” Clark said. “It starts with just tackling and stopping the run. Whenever guys are in third-and-long situations, we usually got them off the field and made plays on the ball, got sacks or whatever the case may be. That’s our whole goal.”