NFC Notes: Lions, Saints, Vikings

Lions

Lions franchise DE Ziggy Ansah said he feels “amazing” after appearing in just his second game of the season last weekend.

“It’s a process and we’re just taking it week in and week out,” Ansah said, via the Detroit Free Press. “We’ll see how it goes during the week and we’ll find out on Sunday how many reps I get.”

• Regarding the decision to fire special teams coordinator Joe Marciano, HC Matt Patricia said: “It’s never really an easy decision when you have to try to make a move in the middle of the season. But just kind of taking a look at the evaluation of everything so far, from what we’ve done so far in the season and moving forward, I just thought it was the best thing right now to make that move and kind of go forward without Joe. I have a lot of respect for Joe and appreciate all his hard work and everything he’s done in the league for a long time. He’s a great man, a good person. Just thought the move was necessary.” (Detroit Free Press)
• Lions DC Paul Pasqualoni says there’s been no talk of moving Teez Tabor to safety and they believe he’s getting better at cornerback, despite his struggles this season. (Kyle Meinke)

Saints

• Mike Garafolo of NFL Media reports that the Saints were scheduled to work out WR Jeremy Kerley on Tuesday, but weather diverted his flight and prevented him from doing so.

Vikings

• Vikings GM Rick Spielman said Tuesday that they want to keep their homegrown talent including LB Anthony Barr: “We want to keep everybody. I’ve always said that and we’ll always try to do our best to keep all our players. Anthony, we drafted him, he’s a very good football player for us and we’ll always look at ways to keep our players best we can.” (Andrew Krammer)
• Regarding the trade deadline, Spielman said they heard from teams but their focus is taking care of their own players: “Get a lot of calls, but I know with how we built this roster and with contract extensions we’ve done, I told Rob [Brzezinski] we were finally No. 1 in the league in least amount of cap room. The most important thing was getting [in-house] contracts done.” (Andrew Krammer)
• As for DE Everson Griffen, Spielman said he has “done everything he’s been asked to do by the medical professionals he’s working with and beyond. We are 100 percent supporting everything that they put in place, and we’ll support Everson and his family 100 percent.” (Andrew Krammer)