Bears

The Bears reached the NFC Divisional Round before falling 20-17 in overtime to the Rams. Chicago QB Caleb Williams called it a “stepping stone” for him and was glad to make visible progress from his rookie year in 2024. 

“It was good for me to be able to see, to be able to feel, to be able to go out there and win games,” Williams said, via Courtney Cronin of ESPN. “But that wasn’t my goal. That’s not my goal. That’s not where I want to be. I want to be the best. I want to go win. I want to be, as we call it, a world champion. A Super Bowl champion. I want to be the best Bear quarterback, the best quarterback. That was a good stepping stone for me. But that wasn’t the last stepping stone. Being able to grow off of last year and be able to progress in ways that I want to? That last year really wasn’t anything. It was a good year. We’ve got many more good years coming up.”

Williams says he’s been “itching” to get back to work at the team facility. 

“I’ve been itching to get back, honestly, since the [Rams] game and trying not to text Ben too much,” Williams said. “Excited to be back. I’m excited to be around the guys. Been waiting on this day to get back to see the new faces and obviously some of the guys that have been here. You set the plan for what’s to come for this year so we can all have one goal and go achieve that at the end of the year.”

Williams thinks 2026 is a “big year” for his career and wants to continue improving as the Bears’ franchise quarterback. 

“I would say for me, personally, it’s a big year in the sense that I get to grow more, I get to step into the role that I spoke about for the past two years being up here,” Williams said. “That’s important for me. I’m really excited.”

Lions

Lions QB Jared Goff still has confidence in his offensive line, with Penei Sewell expected to move to left tackle to replace Taylor Decker. Incoming free agents Cade Mays and Larry Borom are also expected to be starters at center and right tackle, respectively.

“They’ll be just fine,” Goff said, via Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press. “I’m excited to see Penei step into even more of a role in that room being the longest-tenured guy now.”

• Michigan WR Donovan McCulley visited the Lions. He counts as a local prospect. (Pete Nakos)

Packers

The Packers made headlines by trading WR Dontayvion Wicks to the Eagles in exchange for a 2026 fifth-round pick and a 2027 sixth-round pick. When asked about the deal, GM Brian Gutekunst said their surplus of receivers enabled them to make a move. 

“It’s always tough to move off of a player that you feel is as good as Dontayvion was for us,” Gutekunst said, via the team’s YouTube. “I think he’s got a really bright career ahead of him. The situation we were kind of in with the amount of players we had in that room, what we’re probably going to do in the future, him being in the last year of his contract, it just made a little bit of sense. This year, coming out of the ’22 draft class, I think we were lucky enough to have retained a bunch of those guys. But a bunch of those guys signed elsewhere this year, too — we’re probably going to get compensatory picks for those players. I don’t know for sure if we’re going to be able to do that moving forward next year and the year after. So, the ability to get two picks for a player that we weren’t sure exactly how he was going to fit into our future plans, it just made a lot of sense. And I think it was good for us, and I think it’s going to be good for Dontayvion, too, I think he’ll see his opportunities increase there as well.”

Gutekunst mentioned that gaining more picks gives them more options to possibly move around in the upcoming draft. 

“Every G.M. wants as many as you can [have], not only because of the players you can select, but the ability to move,” Gutekunst said. “You never like giving them up, but if there’s a player in front of you that you know you’re going to acquire, it makes it a little bit easier. So, yeah, I think we sit with eight right now. We’re looking at 11-plus for next year. So, whether it’s in this year’s draft, next year’s, the ability to move around to acquire the types of players we want to acquire, you have to have those picks to do that.”

• Gutekunst expects Devonte Wyatt and Javon Hargrave to play “a lot of snaps” all over the defensive line, but will look to add a pure nose tackle in the draft process. (Wood)
• Arizona State OT Max Iheanachor had an official 30 visit with the Packers. (Aaron Wilson)