NFC Notes: Rome Odunze, Preston Smith, Jeff Hafley, Bears, Lions, Packers

Bears

Bears GM Ryan Poles offered Falcons GM Terry Fontenot a 2025 fourth-round pick to move up from No. 9 to No. 8 in order to select WR Rome Odunze. Fontenot rejected the deal, the Bears Wire wrote, but Chicago got Odunze anyway.

“Would you move back one spot? Is that in the cards, or?” Poles asked Fontenot. “Like a future fourth (-round pick). We did the same thing with Philly last year.”

Lions

Lions’ second-year DT Brodric Martin said he lost weight and gained muscle since his rookie season and is paying closer attention to his diet. 

“What I did was lose some fat and gain back some of that muscle,” Martin said, via LionsWire. 

Martin admitted he wasn’t ready to play last year and is feeling more prepared going into 2024. 

“In my mind I wanted to play but I wasn’t ready,” Martin said. “I feel a lot more ready now.”

Martin thinks his largest improvement is having the game slow down for him. 

“I’d say the most is probably my mind,” Martin said. “It’s all slowed down for me a lot more. I understand the game a lot more.”

Packers

Packers DE Preston Smith said he is rushing after the quarterback more often under DC Jeff Hafley and loves the system he’s deploying. 

“Yeah, man. Finally, I’m out here rushing more, and I get to get after the quarterback a whole lot more,” Smith said, via Bill Huber of FanNation. “I just love the system.”

Smith recalled a conversation he had with former NFL CB Richard Sherman, who “spoke highly” of Hafley as a coach.  

“I was already impressed with Jeff Hafley, because I called a friend when he first signed who knew him very well, and that’s Richard Sherman,” Smith said. “He spoke highly of him. Sherm’s a good friend of mine. If one of my friends loves you, I love you. I was always impressed with Jeff Hafley and his system and what they were telling me about it before we went to camp. Now actually running those plays and getting out there on the field with these guys, I’m loving the system a whole lot more.”

Smith thinks Hafley is going to put players in good positions to succeed and is already making progress installing his system in practice. 

“He was just saying he’s a guy who’s going to put all the players in position to make plays,” Smith said. “He’s going to utilize our strengths and the players’ strengths to make sure we go out there and play successful. I think that’s a good thing when you’re coming into a new system or you’re playing a new system. “We’ve got a lot of talented guys on every level, and I feel like with the calls he’s making and from the progress I see in practice, that there’s going to be a lot of guys making a lot of plays this year, and Green Bay’s defense is going to be causing a lot of plays and helping the offense be in position.”