NFC Notes: Justin Fields, Bears, Lions, Packers

Bears

With training camp just around the corner, Bears QB Justin Fields has a lot of optimism about the step forward he believes the team and the offense can take in 2023. 

“It’s a very exciting time, just because of the new pieces we have on our team,” Fields said via Mark Potash of the Chicago Sun-Times. “Really, OTAs made it more exciting. The culture we put in place last year and all the guys, I think we’re all just trying to reach the same goal and that’s to win the Super Bowl.”

Lions

Lions DC Aaron Glenn explained that the team’s strategy for building a great defense starts with the defensive line and the cornerback positions. That’s why it was so important for Detroit to augment its secondary in free agency this offseason. 

“Defensive football is all based around D-line and corners, for the most part,” Glenn said, via The Athletic. “So the more you can surround yourself, the more you can build your defense with that, I think the more dominant you can be. You’re starting to see that around the league. But that’s always been my motto, it’s always been my belief, it’s always been my philosophy, and it’s gonna be hard for that to change. So the guys that we got — it’s probably the beginning of, man, we’re trying to really build this the way that I see it. Man, let’s try to get as many quality corners as we can. And that’s really the start of what we’re doing.”

Lions GM Brad Holmes added that an area of emphasis this offseason was improving the cornerback position in particular, with CBs Cameron Sutton and Emmanuel Moseley the major additions.

“I told you guys at end of (the) season, ‘We’re gonna add to our defense,’” Holmes said. “We just needed to get better there. We’re just very young at that position, so to add some guys with some more experience, add some guys with more versatility, we just want to get better there. We still got some young guys that are still growing, but obviously, that was an area of emphasis and will continue to be.”

Glenn expects DB C.J. Gardner-Johnson to be the leader of the team’s secondary and hopes that they can start to build continuity on the back end of their defense.

“I think he’s going to be able to bring a certain aura to the secondary,” Glenn explained. “Along with Cam — because Cam has that, too. He might have it at a different level, but he has it. The same way with E-Man (Moseley). You know, they have it. Kerby (Joseph) has it. Tracy (Walker) has it. You have a collective group of men that have this mentality, but now they can mesh it together. That’s what we have to do as soon as possible is mesh it together, because now this is a third year where we have different guys playing different spots. Hopefully, this creates continuity between that whole secondary and defense in general.”

Packers

• Packers second-round WR Jayden Reed didn’t receive any guarantees in the third year of his rookie contract, which is one of the areas rookies are allowed to negotiate with teams. He was taken with the 50th pick while the 49th pick, Steelers DT Keeanu Benton, was the last rookie to get third-year guarantees this year. (Daniel Salib)