NFC Notes: Hendon Hooker, Bears, Lions, Vikings

Bears

Bears WRs coach Tyke Tolbert had high praise of fourth-round WR Tyler Scott‘s ability to make plays after the catch. 

“His speed shows up, his suddenness shows up, and his moves and run after the catch show up,” Tolbert said, via Josh Schrock of NBC Sports. “He can catch a ball, make a guy miss, turn around, get going really fast. Like zero to 60. Obviously, he has deep speed. And his knowledge, he doesn’t make the same mistake twice. There are some things that we put in, everything’s new to him, and we’ll put in something that’s new and he doesn’t make the same mistake twice. That’s always a good sign for any player, much less receiver. You have to worry about breaking the huddle. There’s motions, there’s shift. Where’s my split? What’s the depth of my route? Certain defenses make a route convert into another route. It’s a lot of things going on at wide receiver. It’s not just lining up on the right side, going 10 yards, going right, and catch the ball. There’s a lot of things that go on that people don’t realize. But he doesn’t make the same mistake twice. He does a really good job.”

Bears GM Ryan Poles wants Scott to continue developing his route running but feels his speed makes a big difference on the field. 

“So he checks all of those boxes, so I know with good coaching and his hard work that he’s going put in too, that he can take that next step and add the details of route-running with the speed and that will be a deadly combination,” Poles said. “But the beautiful thing is, when you have top-end speed, that buys you time to get that detail in and become a pro in your skillset and how you approach the game.”

Bears OC Luke Getsy thinks Scott has shown a good approach to their offseason training. 

“The way that he came in, he’s got some stuff to him that you like,” Getsy said. “His approach — he’s got toughness. He’s a smart guy. I’ve been really pleased with him. By no means is he where he needs to be, but where he’s going and his approach and the way he attacks every single day.”

Lions

Lions third-round QB Hendon Hooker says he will continue to take mental reps behind current starting QB Jared Goff until his knee is ready to go. 

“ACL’s doing good. Just taking it day by day, and just continuing to chip away and stack days,” Hooker said during an appearance on Good Morning Football. “I think one thing that I know for sure is that physically and mentally I’ve become a lot stronger through this process. But we don’t know when the day will come when I’m 100%. But when it does come, it’ll be a heartfelt moment for me, I know for sure, because of how much I miss the game and how much I miss competing.”

“It’s been amazing, just to be out there on the field with the guys,” Hooker continued. “Even though I’m not playing, I’m taking mental reps and simulating some things, some calls, and some different thoughts in my head, what I’d do in certain situations. So it’s been a blast to be out there and see guys compete and fly around.”

Hooker also commented on what he could learn sitting behind Goff specifically. 

“Essentially, he’s an amazing quarterback,” Hooker said. “Just continuing to learn from him and watch him, watching his footwork, watching how he directs traffic, when he’s in the huddle, just taking command of the total offense. It’s amazing to see him operate, and one day I hope to be on that level and operate as efficiently as he does.”

Vikings

Regarding the Vikings moving on from veteran WR Adam Thielen and LB Eric Kendricks, HC Kevin O’Connell said he reached out to both players shortly after making the decision to part ways.

“When those things were final, those decisions were made, I reached out directly to those guys and made sure, once again, they heard it from me,” O’Connell said, via VikingsWire. “But also, ‘Hey, moving forward, if there’s anything I can do or I can help with in any way,’ I was gonna do that.”

O’Connell said he talked to Thielen about some of the opportunities he had around the NFL. 

“I talked to Adam multiple times about some of the opportunities he had and ultimately just wanted to be a resource for him,” O’Connell said. “As much as anything just as a friend, and somebody that respects him.”

Regarding Minnesota retaining S Harrison Smith and QB Kirk Cousins, as well as keeping as many veteran players as they did in 2022, O’Connell said he wanted to learn and make sure the veterans had “their fingerprints on our team.”

“As a young first-time head coach, I wanted to not only engage with them; I wanted to learn from them. I wanted to allow them to have their fingerprints on our team, based upon their experiences and how we put together something we could be really proud of, and do it in Year,” O’Connell said. “And in my mind, there really wasn’t a real necessity to say goodbye to a lot of those guys immediately. It was hopefully as much to their benefit as it was to ours, that they get to have another great year, experience some success, continue to grow in their own right, even at that point in time in their career, and get to look back at that year and feel like they had a real hand in it. Because they really did.”