NFC Notes: Kenny Clark, Justin Jefferson, Lions, Packers, Vikings

Lions

Lions CB Carlton Davis is excited about what Detroit is building and brings him back to when he won a Super Bowl in Tampa Bay.

“I think it’s a great group. Really excited about the personnel, the coaches, the environment. Haven’t been this excited since 2020, when we went and won the Super Bowl. There’s so much talent on this team. A really competitive environment. And so far it’s been really good,” Davis said, via PFT.

Packers

Packers DT Kenny Clark pointed out they have a “big group of defensive linemen” and their new 4-3 system requires players of that skillset.  

“When we do drills, I’m like, ‘Damn.’ We’ve got like a big group of defensive linemen now,” Clark said, via Wes Hodkiewicz of the team’s site. “It’s going to be a lot different, but with this system, you’ve got to play like that.”

Clark thinks their 4-3 scheme will help free him up as an interior lineman. 

“It’s one of things where all my career I’ve been kind of been playing this way, but in more of a controlled way,” said Clark. “Now this is giving us a chance to shut all that other stuff off … just use your ability, go up the field and be disruptive. I just think with my get-off and how I am, I think it’s going to suit me well.”

Clark trains with Colts DL DeForest Buckner and Jaguars DL Arik Armstead over the offseason. He often bounces ideas off of both players given they have experience in a 4-3 system. 

“I would check up with them and see what it’s like playing in that,” Clark said. “I always wondered what it was like, but now that I’m in it, I see how they made so many TFLs and all those plays they were always making. It all makes sense. They were really just cutting it loose that whole time.”

Vikings

When asked about whether the Vikings should’ve re-signed Justin Jefferson to his four-year, $140 million deal given there’s a surplus of quality receivers, GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah responded they try to calculate a player’s value and acknowledged that making it far into the playoffs requires a certain talent-level to the roster based on production. 

“I have been in places where they have specific calculations for how much a player’s worth,” Adofo-Mensah said, via Ben Goessling of the Star Tribune. “Those are tougher in football as compared to baseball, just because of the interaction between teammates and things like that. But I do know those numbers, and obviously I have [them] in our calculations. And then you can kind of look at the market: What does the market typically pay for things like that? There’s also ways to do it, relative value-wise: Would I rather have a quarterback at this level or a wide receiver at this level or a rusher at this level? But at the end of the day, studying teams that have gotten to the NFC Championship [Game], AFC Championship [Game], Super Bowl level, there’s a certain amount of talent that it requires. How you get to that answer, there’s a lot of different things: draft picks and different things like that. We try and compare, when we have to pay for premier players, what is that compared to other teams when they compare their players, and are we getting the right production out of that?”

Adofo-Mensah added teams ideally find talent through the draft, but re-signing your own players comes second.

“But re-signing your own is typically the second best, right? Because then free agency is its own deal, and you have to pay a premium to the market. And then lastly is, people have to trade. So with that kind of hierarchy, we look at these deals as still pretty favorable to the team, when you’re extending your own.”

Adofo-Mensah feels they’ve built a young roster with a lot of players entering their prime. 

“There’s always that fine line, where you feel like you could have been a little better here or a little better there,” Adofo-Mensah said. “But big picture, we’ve set ourselves up where I feel like we have a young roster where a lot of players are before their prime, or entering their prime at positions that matter. There are some other places where we have players that are developing and growing, and pieces that fit, complementary football-wise. And then in terms of our culture, I think we’re building it the right way.”