NFC Notes: Lions, Packers, Vikings

Lions

Lions owner Sheila Ford Hamp said that the team is building the right way, and trusts the vision that GM Brad Holmes and HC Dan Campbell laid out for Detroit.

“Sticking to the plan is often hard,” Hamp said, via Lions Wire. “You have the temptation to go, ‘Oh, let’s go out and get this player’ or ‘Let’s do that.’ Well, that’s just not the way we want to build things. We want to build things with a solid foundation for the future so that we are consistently a terrific team.”

Hamp also admitted that she would never meddle with Holmes’ or Campbell’s vision for the team.

“I see my role evolving and changing in that I think we’ve got a great coach,” Hamp stated. “I think we’ve got a terrific general manager. I want to know and be involved with them and their thinking and seeing how they work, and then you let them do their work. But I have every confidence in them, and I would never meddle. You’ve set a vision.”

• Lions LB Chris Board‘s one-year, $2 million deal includes a $400,000 signing bonus, $600,000 of his $1.5 million salary is guaranteed. He can earn up to $100,000 in per-game active roster bonuses and $1.1 million in playing-time, playoffs, and Pro Bowl incentives. (Aaron Wilson)

Packers

• Packers TE Robert Tonyan‘s one-year, $3.75 million deal includes a $1 million signing bonus and a base salary of $1.035 million. He can earn up to $1.515 million in per-game active roster bonuses, a $1.75 million playing-time and Pro Bowl incentive, to go along with a $200,000 workout bonus. (Aaron Wilson)
• According to Audrey Snyder, the Packers were well represented at Penn State’s pro day on Thursday, which included GM Brian Gutekunst and WR coach Jason Vrable. Vrable met with WR Jahan Dotson, who described that his meeting went well with Green Bay: “Went really well. Just talking ball, getting to know me, getting to know him.”
• The Packers had just a one-year offer on the table for WR Marquez Valdes-Scantling before he signed with the Chiefs. (Jeremy Fowler)

Vikings

Many Vikings fans were left wondering why G Wyatt Davis didn’t take many snaps after the team selected him in the third round. There is now word that former GM Rick Spielman was the only one who wanted to draft him, while others didn’t see value in the pick.

“Do you want to know what I heard at the combine? That was a Rick Spielman special, where he didn’t listen to anyone else in the room on Wyatt Davis,” said Courtney Cronin on the Purple Insider podcast. “He went after his guy. Two scouts I talked to in the Minnesota Vikings organization said that this guy wasn’t even a backup grade for them. Okay? That’s what the reality of the situation was.”

• The Vikings also planned to give Bills RFA LB Ryan Bates an offer, but he elected to go forward with the Bears. Buffalo has five days to match Chicago’s offer sheet. (Chris Tomasson)