Bears

Bears DT Grady Jarrett was a member of the Falcons’ Super Bowl loss to the Patriots in 2017, where Atlanta led 28-3 in the third quarter. Chicago G Joe Thuney was on the opposite side of that game, which Jarrett thinks helped their comeback over the Packers in this year’s NFC Wild Card Round. 

“Having Joe on the team helped us talk about, when you are down like that, how do you come back? What’s the mindset of the team?” Jarrett said, via Dan Wiederer of The Athletic. “From my perspective, it’s (sharing that) you have to finish people while they’re down.”

Jarrett reflected on their 52-21 loss to the Lions in September, saying his message to his teammates after the game was to be there for each other and make the decision to turn things around. 

“My message that night was, ‘We’re all we’ve got. And we’re all we need,’” Jarrett said. “It was really just turning up the heat on the idea that no one is going to feel sorry for us. No one is coming to save us. We have to make the decision about how our season will go. It felt like a critical time to speak up.”

Bears DL Gervon Dexter recalled Jarrett’s message after the loss to Detroit, which was to be “tired of the excuses.” 

“His message was that we had to be tired of all this. Tired of the excuses. Tired of getting beat down. Tired of all the other stuff. Just lock back in and become the team we want to be. It was perfect timing,” Dexter said. 

Packers

Packers LB Micah Parsons is rehabbing from ACL surgery, which he describes as the most challenging process he has faced. Parsons also weighed in on DC Jeff Hafley interviewing with other teams.

“So far, they say I’m flying, so whatever that means,” Parsons said,via Matt Schneidman of The Athletic. “It’s hard because I’m not a very vulnerable person and during this period, I’ve probably been the most vulnerable I’ve been in the last like, probably my whole life, in telling people how much I need them and appreciate them being there for me. Because, to be honest, man, you can’t go through this injury by yourself. Like, you have to have — I can’t even put my own drawers on, man. Like, I can’t shower by myself. I can’t even get off the bed myself, so I couldn’t imagine being alone.”

“When you talk about pain, can’t sleep, can’t move around, you can’t turn over without your leg going into damn near, ‘Oh, s—!’ like you’re jumping out of your sleep,” Parsons continued. “I can’t remember the last time I slept through the night. My body’s tired. My mind’s tired. I’m exhausted, man. But it’s going to be worth it once I’m able to move and play again.”

Hafley had predicted that Parsons would be able to break the sack record with a total of 24, yet his injury this year prevented him from making a true attempt.

“Yeah, he told me that,” Parsons said of Hafley. “He’s putting a lot of pressure on me. I’m not scared of those challenges, either. They know I’m coming. I had a little fun with Myles (Garrett). He talked about (how) he’s going to put the trophy, the Defensive Player of the Year trophy, in the training room so we can look at it (Parsons and Garrett train together in the offseason). I said, ‘You know what, don’t worry. The light’s bright, but the sun always sets, too, so we’re coming.’ It’s always great that you’ve got a coach like that. Me and Haf has a great relationship … he’s another guy I can’t wait to have another year with.”

“Nah,” Parsons added with a smile. “Haf ain’t going nowhere.”

Vikings

The Vikings were unable to finalize a contract extension with DC Brian Flores. When asked if he’s worried that Flores will accept a lateral move to another team’s defensive coordinator role, HC Kevin O’Connell responded that they want to respect that Flores wants to see his market value, but is confident they’ll get something done for the coordinator.  

“I mean, whether it was trying to get something done in training camp [or] trying to get out in front of kind of this period before people would be able to talk to him about a similar role with their teams. You don’t see a lot of players signing free agency before free agency starts sometimes, because they want to know what their market is and they want to be able to totally clarify that. We were very much being aggressive to try to get something done with him, but at the same time want to be respectful and make sure he can go through whatever process. … But, based upon my conversations, I have a lot of confidence we’re going to be able to get something done with him as our defensive coordinator,” O’Connell said, via Kevin Seifert of ESPN.