NFC Notes: Packers, Panthers, Vikings

Packers

• The Packers converted $370,000 of salary and an $11.45 million roster bonus into a signing bonus, adding one void year for CB Jaire Alexander.
• For LB Preston Smith, the team converted $835,000 of salary and a $7.5 million roster bonus into a signing bonus, adding one void year. The total amount of cap space cleared was $16.1 million. (Spotrac)

Panthers

Panthers’ new assistant HC and RBs coach Duce Staley is glad to be working closer to home in South Carolina. 

“It feels good to be back close to home,” Staley said, via NFL.com. “Just growing up as a kid, of course, being in South Carolina during the time, ’95, ’96, of course the Panthers got going there. As a kid, you always dream about if you play in the NFL, you want to play close to home. So, the Panthers was definitely one of those teams that I thought about that hopefully draft me. It didn’t happen, but here I am now.”

When asked about why he left the Lions, Staley said he was eager to work with HC Frank Reich again after winning a Super Bowl with him on the Eagles. 

“First and foremost, Frank Reich,” Staley said. “Awesome human being. Was able to win a Super Bowl with him. We talked about my mom, of course. She’s my heart, she’s my rock. So if I had an opportunity to come home, I said to myself a long time ago I would. But getting back to Frank, just being able to spend those years in Philadelphia with Frank Reich and win a Super Bowl, just to see him go out there and affect young men the way he did, it was awesome. And I said to myself I would love to have the opportunity to coach with him again.”

Vikings

• The Vikings announced they have hired Mike Siravo as ILB coach and Lance Bennett as a defensive quality control coach. 
• Minnesota also named Grant Udinski as the assistant QB coach.