Bears
- Bears QB Justin Fields said he was checked out for a hip injury in Week 17’s game: “It was a roll-out play, and I kind of got tackled weird too where my hip got kind of twisted up, so I felt fine afterwards, just got it stretched out and worked on a little bit.” (Kevin Fishbain)
- Bears HC Matt Eberflus confirmed that Fields’ hip injury is not considered a long-term issue: “It’s not long-term. He’s just not able to go full speed. I asked him how it was today and he said, ‘It’s still real sore.'” (Dan Wiederer)
- When asked about improvements Fields could make for next season, Eberflus said he wants the quarterback to show good rhythm, timing, comfort in the pocket, and ability to deliver downfield passes: “Just the rhythm and timing of it. Being able to ride the pocket and deliver the ball down the field. But there’s a lot of nuances to that. There’s a lot of detail to that.” (Wiederer)
- The Bears brought in four long snappers for tryouts on Tuesday including Kameron Canaday, Joe Fortunato, Jordan Silver and Steven Wirtel. (Aaron Wilson)
Lions
The Lions have a rookie edge rusher leading the team in sacks, just not the one they expected. No. 2 overall pick Aidan Hutchinson has had a great season with 7.5 sacks so far, but he was just passed by sixth-round LB James Houston, who started the season on the practice squad and has eight sacks on just 110 snaps so far this season. Lions DL coach Todd Wash explained why it took so long for them to figure out what they had with Houston.
“At the time everybody was healthy,” Wash said via Tim Twentyman of the team website. “That was a big part of it. Charles (Harris), JO (Julian Okwara), they were all healthy. It was just trying to get all these bodies up. We seen it flash a lot in practice (with Houston). You talk to Deck (LT Taylor Decker), Deck said he was probably one of our better pass rushers. It just took us a while to get smart more than anything.”
“Obviously some of these nicks and injuries created an opportunity for us to get him up and take a look at him,” Wash added. “When he was up he hadn’t taken any practice reps. Some of this stuff did shock us, there’s no doubt. But the more and more he’s up and more and more that he’s able to execute the system he’s a heck of a playmaker.”
- The Lions hosted LB Julian Stanford for a workout on Tuesday. They later signed him to the practice squad. (Aaron Wilson)
Vikings
- Vikings HC Kevin O’Connell said C Austin Schlottmann will undergo surgery to repair a fractured fibula. (Kevin Seifert)
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