NFC Notes: Kirk Cousins, Justin Jefferson, Bears, Lions, Vikings

Bears

• Bears S Eddie Jackson is unsure about his availability for Week 6 and the training staff wants to continue observing him: “We’ll have to wait and see. I don’t know. … A lot of it is probably up to the training room. I know they’d like to see me do a full practice throughout the week,” per Dan Wiederer. 
• Bears RB coach David Walker on RB D’Onta Foreman: “Yeah, we’ve got some guys injured and dinged up. But the guy who’s going to play for us is a proven runner in this league.” (Wiederer)

Lions

Lions OC Ben Johnson said WR Jameson Williams will continue to get better and he’s looking forward to him building a rapport with QB Jared Goff.

“He’s going to continue to get better every single week,” Johnson said, via Lions Wire. “That’s been the biggest issue with Jamo, is the fact that we haven’t been able to stack good days on top of each other since he’s been here. And so, I’m really – he had a great week of practice last week. I’m looking forward to him doing that again this week because that’s the way you get better. That’s the way you gain trust of the play-caller, the quarterback. The quarterback will play faster, have more anticipation of where he’s going to be, and we’ll be able to continue to give him opportunities to catch the ball and be the playmaker that he’s capable of being.”

Johnson added that Williams effort in the run game will keep him on the field.

“The coolest thing that came from the game the other day is, the guy is such a big competitor, you see him block in the run game like he is. If he blocks like that, there’ll be snaps for him every week. There’s no problem there. And then the challenge is, ‘Hey, how do we get him the ball?’ And we’ll keep pushing it that way. But I have no problem with where he’s at right now and where he’s going.”

• Lions HC Dan Campbell said rookie QB Hendon Hooker (knee) hasn’t suffered any setbacks and is “hopeful” to get him back at some point: “Certainly there’s no setback, he’s doing well,” per Eric Woodyard. 
• Detroit officially ruled out seven players from Week 6, including RB Jahmyr Gibbs (hamstring), Brian Branch (ankle), OT Jonah Jackson (ankle), Zonovan Knight (shoulder), James Mitchell (hamstring), Emmanuel Moseley (knee), and Josh Paschal (knee). 

Vikings

Vikings QB Kirk Cousins discussed the changes the team will have to make offensively while WR Justin Jefferson is out with a hamstring injury.

“He’s been healthy and available for every game since, I think, 2020, so you haven’t really seen what that might look like,” Cousins said, via PFT. “I think defenses are so well prepared that they’ll still then go by, ‘OK, whoever else is left, how do we want to defend that?’ So, there’s still going to be a very intentional, prepared approach from them that will be calculated. But you never really know. And we never knew how they were going to defend Justin from week to week, you know? You had your ideas, but you also knew that it’s multiple. So sometimes defending Justin, they can do it in completely different ways on back-to-back plays. That variety, I think, also helps us be prepared maybe for what we could see now.”

Cousins added that he expects to have every skill-position player involved in the game plan to help pick up the slack.

“[W]e still have our system, and we’ve still gotta run our system,” Cousins said. “That probably doesn’t change. But I think it’ll be a lot of other people who can contribute. It probably wouldn’t be the focus on Justin as much as using all five eligibles.”