NFC Notes: Jordan Love, J.J. McCarthy, Lions, Packers, Vikings

Lions

Colton Pouncy of The Athletic projected the Lions’ 53-man roster as they head into their second preseason game. 

• Starting with RB, Pouncy believes fourth-rounder Sione Vaki will make the initial roster so they don’t risk losing him on waivers. 
• Pouncy has four TEs making the roster including Shane Zylstra because of his versatility and first-team experience along with James Mitchell because of his draft status.
• Due to injury, Pouncy has the final DE spot down to Isaac Ukwu and Mitchell Agude and he leans toward Agude for now. 
• Pouncy had a tough decision at CB between Khalil Dorsey, Kindle Vildor, and Steven Gilmore but chose Dorsey because of his special teams’ value.
• Finally, Pouncy feels S C.J. Moore gets the final spot over Brandon Joseph and Morice Norris because of Moore’s experience and success on special teams.
• Ian Rapoport reports Lions CB Terrion Arnold is not expected to miss Week 1 after suffering a pec injury in Monday’s practice.

Packers

A lot has changed for Packers QB Jordan Love in the last year, as he went from a relatively unknown quantity who struggled along with the whole Green Bay offense for half the year, only to turn it on down the stretch. Now he’s tied for the NFL’s highest-paid quarterback at $55 million a year and locked in as the leader of one of the NFL’s youngest offenses. Packers HC Matt LaFleur discussed what’s different about Love this year compared to last. 

“He’s more assertive,” he said via ESPN’s Dan Graziano. “More in command. He has a better idea of how to use the people around him. They’ve all been through it for a year. I thought our offense really grew a lot last year in terms of our ability to use a lot of different guys. I mean, it’s pretty unique to feel like we have a receiving corps where all five of those guys you feel comfortable playing a ton of snaps.”

Green Bay finished the year as one of the hottest teams in football, going from the No. 7 seed in the NFC to making a run. LaFleur adds what he’s most impressed about is how the offense hasn’t rested on its laurels. 

“We were clicking, for sure,” LaFleur said. “And I still think there’s so much more room for growth for us, just in terms of consistency. There’s been good moments and bad moments throughout camp. Just gotta be more consistent.”

Vikings

Vikings QB J.J. McCarthy threw two touchdowns in what was an overall impressive preseason debut, even including an interception on his first impression. It led to speculation about whether McCarthy could end up outgrowing the cautious developmental plan HC Kevin O’Connell has gone through great pains to craft and force his way into the lineup sooner than expected. O’Connell pointed out that the way he evaluates McCarthy’s progress is going to be much deeper than a good preseason box score. 

“What we’ve got to avoid is the illusion of quarterback play,” O’Connell said via Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer. “It might be something as simple as, ‘That might have been your best throw of the day, but was it really real?’ You get a top-10 pass rush in this league, and you took the wrong drop. You started your eyes in the wrong spot, and you fell into a completion where somebody watching practice may say, ‘This guy’s ready to go.’”

“I know what I called,” O’Connell continued. “I know what you did, every single snap. I also know what was not exactly right, what was a little shaky. It might be little things. It might be calling plays in the huddle. It might be cadence at the line of scrimmage, remembering to send your motion. Every single time one of those things happens, that has nothing to do with your ability to play the position.

“That’s purely the comfort of making sure that 10 other guys in that huddle can break the huddle and run the play and be held accountable for the details of their job because I can do the baseline of mine, long before you have a ball leave your hands or make a check or an audible. That’s where I’ve seen the growth and development with J.J. He is getting better at that.”

O’Connell finished by acknowledging McCarthy is the future of the organization but there’s a process to mastering the details of the position which is ultimately the biggest factor to having success. 

“The endgame of all that is a day where J.J. hits Justin Jefferson for some big plays and everybody’s feeling good,” he said. “But there also might be a small third-and-9 where instead of forcing a ball, he checks the ball down and we get 10. I’m the most excited in the quarterback room when I see it, and they’re like dude, That was just a checkdown. Then after all of this, you get to all the layers of managing the game. Being a game manager is a pretty powerful thing if you’re as talented as these guys are.”