Bears
New Bears LB Tremaine Edmunds says that he’s “excited” about QB Justin Fields and how he makes players around him better.
“Hard worker, leader. You can see that he makes guys around him better,” Edmunds said, via BearsWire.com. “He leads from the front. His work obviously speaks for itself. Just seeing him go out there every day and grow, develop, spread the ball around, just his thinking, I’m seeing it firsthand and I’m excited.”
“They’ve got a lot of good things going on on the offensive side. With his leadership and obviously his playmaking ability, it’s something to be excited for, for sure.”
Lions
One of the benefits to the Lions repairing the fractured relationship with Hall of Fame WR Calvin Johnson and his being around the team more is his availability as a resource for the receivers on the team, especially the younger ones. Johnson said he’s happy to play a mentor role for 2022 first-round WR Jameson Williams in particular, who is still trying to find his footing in the NFL.
“I connected with Jamo yesterday really for the first time, and I look forward to being around and being a shoulder for him to lean on,” Johnson said via USA Today’s Jeff Risdon. “Extremely talented kid. We saw him when he touched the field last year for the first time. So I look forward to just helping him just build a level of consistency and being the pro that he wants to be. Anything I can do to help him, I’ll do that. I’ll be there.”
Packers
Packers CB Eric Stokes‘ second season was derailed by a one-two injury punch, as he injured his meniscus and suffered a Lisfranc injury. It’s the latter that’s been giving him more issues as he recovers, particularly given how much his game is built on speed. Fellow Packers RB Patrick Taylor also has come back from a Lisfranc injury and has been giving Stokes advice.
“It’s going to take some time for you to feel back like yourself, with an injury like that, with an injury such as a foot,” Taylor said via the Athletic’s Matt Schneidman. “I told (Stokes) to take his time. He’ll know exactly when he’s ready, being able to get back to that explosiveness and that speed that he feels like himself, being able to do bounds and stuff like that, cutting and stuff like that without pain and balancing on that foot. There’s going to be some good days and some not-so-good days where your foot does feel kind of achy, but I told him as you progress and get better, month to month and then year to year, you won’t even feel it.”
Even when Stokes is healthy, he’s going to have to win back a starting job. Right now Jaire Alexander and Rasul Douglas are ahead of him at outside corner and Keisean Nixon is getting the first look in the slot at nickel.
“I mean, you always gotta win your spot no matter what,” Stokes said. “When I came in, I didn’t have a spot. I had to pretty much go get it … Being hurt and all that stuff, I know for a fact that like ‘Hey, nothing is guaranteed.’ Them boys balled without me, so it is what it is. You gotta go out there and you gotta show everybody, ‘Hey, man, I’m pretty much here and this is what I’m supposed to do.’”
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