NFC Notes: Lions, Packers, Vikings, J.C. Tretter

Lions

• Lions HC Dan Campbell named WR Kalif Raymond their starting punt returner and RB Godwin Igwebuike the kick returner. (Tim Twentyman)
• Campbell said DL Levi Onwuzurike hasn’t had a setback from his back and hip injuries but is “progressing at a snail’s pace.” (Justin Rogers)
• Campbell added that Onwuzurike will likely be unavailable for Week 1. 

Packers

Packers QB Aaron Rodgers was asked if he felt he gave too early of an assessment of the team’s wide receivers after the preseason struggles, saying he feels that the offense has been getting closer to where it should be. He also downplayed not attending OTAs and getting more time on task with the young group. 

“You know, not really,” Rodgers said, via Rob Demovsky of ESPN. “Training camp is a long experience. There’s plenty of time for conversations, for practice, for a lot of the things they expect them to do in the regular season. I rely on the coaching staff to pass on the message as we’re learning the offense, and then I’m kind of the 202 professor. They’ve got to get kind of the base concepts, and when I come in, we have the offense outside of the paper offense. I feel like there’s been a few guys who’ve made a jump mentally as we’ve gotten into the second and third week of camp. Sammy [Watkins] being one of them, I feel like he’s been playing faster and making more precise decisions. But again, you’ve got to have realistic expectations for all our guys, not just the young players.”

Rodgers also got to practice with second-round WR Christian Watson for the first time after the rookie was activated following knee surgery. Rodgers also mentioned the progress of WR Romeo Doubs since the preseason has gotten underway. 

“Yesterday we did kind of a spur-of-the-moment adjustment in a period, and I told him what to do in the huddle, and it’s something he’s never done before, and he went out and did it perfect,” Rodgers said. “It’s those little things like that that start to gain that trust and that confidence and gets you excited about things. Now Doubs has done a lot of really nice things, but I think the standard for him is not going to be maybe the standard for a normal rookie we’ve had here in the past, especially in the past four or five years, because he’s going to be expected to play based on his performance so far in camp. So we’ve got to hold him to a standard that I know he’s capable of reaching. But he cares about it, he’s a great kid, he’s made some instinctual plays that you just can’t really coach.”

Vikings

• Veteran C J.C. Tretter told Sports Illustrated’s Alex Prewitt he had a list of about seven teams he wanted to sign with, headlined by the Panthers, Cowboys and Vikings. Carolina hired his former OL coach James Campen, Tretter thought it’d be fun to play his final season in Dallas, and he grew up rooting for the Vikings. 
• However, none of the teams on his list reciprocated his interest, and Tretter adds the Vikings didn’t even return his agent’s call. 
• Tretter said his salary request was “not at a vet minimum” but still “well below the value I bring.” He also added he was healthy and ready from that perspective, plus no team even requested a physical or MRI. 
• Vikings HC Kevin O’Connell was asked about Tretter’s comments and said neither he nor GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah ever received word from Tretter or his agent. (Kevin Seifert)