NFC Notes: Lions, Davante Adams, Packers, Vikings

Lions

Lions LB Jarrad Davis admits that he has struggled to find other things to focus on aside from football and is happy to be returning to Detroit where things were simpler for him than they were during his time with the Jets.

“As a human being, we say we want to ignore the noise, we say we want to do all these things,” Davis said, via  Dave Birkett of The Detroit Free Press. “But it’s really hard. And as a football player, it’s not easy to go out and work hard every single day of the week, week in and week out, and come home without the results that you want. So I’ve had to learn how to balance and understand that this thing is not going to be an overnight thing. And yeah, there’s been a lot of work put (into) it, but the time it takes is the time it takes. So at the end of the day, there’s not a lot of things, maybe a couple of ‘Madden’ games that I’ve ever quit. But I’m going to keep working as long as they allow me to. A lot of it just comes down to really just having simplicity in the schemes where guys can go out and just play fast. We have an understanding of what exactly we need to do on each and every play, each and every down so we can just go out there and execute. And during my time away just learning that a lot of things like the connections…really cultivating those bonds within the team is something we kind of lacked a little bit while I was here. Just driving those things home to really build it up to make sure everybody is one unit out there.”

Packers

Packers HC Matt LaFleur spoke in-depth about the departure of WR Davante Adams to Las Vegas with Tom Pelissero.

“Sometimes you got to make some tough decisions,” LaFleur said, via NFL.com. “Certainly appreciate everything Davante brought to our team. I mean, he is the best receiver in the National Football League, so that was a tough one for me personally and for our organization. I think Tae and I have a great relationship. I think there’s great mutual respect. Certainly, he’s a guy that’s going to be tough to replace and so you never want to let great players like that walk away from your team. But, like I said, it’s just one of those deals where some tough decisions have to be made. Unfortunately, in the National Football League, there’s a thing called the salary cap and you gotta get below that as well. So everything factored into those decisions.”

LaFleur was also asked if he attempted to dissuade Adams from leaving and told Pelissero that the team was going to bring in more weapons for QB Aaron Rodgers.

“Well, there really wasn’t anything to talk about. I mean, you’re going through a contract negotiation and certainly, it was just one of those deals where, like I said, a lot of tough decisions had to be made.” LaFleur said of Adams.

“I think just like every great quarterback or quarterback in general, you want as many pieces as you can around you,” LaFleur said about Rodgers. Certainly, there’s going to be an opportunity, we’re still in free agency and then we’ve got the Draft. In my experience, there’s a lot of movement that can take place between now and the start of the season. We’re going to absolutely have to add some pieces to that room and, you know, we got to construct our offense around what we have. You can’t look back and you gotta move forward.”

Vikings

• According to PFN’s Mike Kaye, the Vikings have a top 30 visit scheduled with Louisiana S Percy Butler. 
• New Vikings CB Chandon Sullivan said he signed with the Vikings over interest from the Broncos and Packers. Asked why he said “it was time to move on” and Minnesota was “just a better opportunity somewhere else.” (Chris Tomasson)
• Sullivan didn’t give exact contract figures but acknowledged it was in the $2-$3 million range with incentives.
• He also added: “Some (GB) fans say I’m a traitor but they’ve got to understand we don’t pick ourselves the GM (does) (It’s) kind of funny but it comes with the territory Kind of weird being actually a Vikings player now when for the last 3 seasons they’ve been my rival.” (Tomasson)
• Sullivan played nickel corner for the Packers and probably will do the same for the Vikings but said he’s not limited to just that: “Wherever they need help I’m a versatile player Whether it’s slot, corner, helping at safety, I’m the man for the job… We’re going to see how the rest of free agency..& how the draft goes.” (Tomasson)