NFC Notes: Taylor Decker, Jordan Love, Bears, Lions, Packers

Bears

• Ian Rapoport reports that Bears QB Caleb Williams was seen wearing a cast on his hand due to the removal of a minor cyst and he is considered to be fine.
• Per Brad Biggs, Saints interim HC Darren Rizzi could be considered for the Bears’ ST coordinator under new HC Ben Johnson. He notes that the team could also retain current ST coordinator Richard Hightower.

Lions

Lions LT Taylor Decker and HC Dan Campbell spoke about the team’s historic season coming to an end on Saturday night when they lost a high-scoring battle against the Commanders.

“It’ll probably bother me forever, honestly,” Decker said, via Colton Pouncy of The Athletic. “I’m walking up here in the locker room and you gotta hear them cheer. And rightfully so for them. They deserve to cheer. We just have to sit here and listen to it.”

“Look, I told those guys this may have been our only shot,” Campbell had commented in the past. “Do I think that? No. Do I believe that? No. However, I know how hard it is to get here. I’m well aware. And it’s gonna be twice as hard to get back to this point next year. That’s the reality.”

“It’s not the time to talk about ‘What a great year,’ or how many wins,” Campbell said after the loss. “Because at this moment, I don’t think any of us feel that way. The whole point of doing what you do is to get to the show, man. It’s why you play this game. And we fell short.”

Packers

Packers HC Matt LaFleur was asked what QB Jordan Love and the team can improve on next season and if the young quarterback took a step forward this season despite the team’s early exit from the playoffs. Love himself was also asked the same question.

“I think it’s collective,” LaFleur said, via Rob Demovksy of ESPN. “Obviously, you can’t have the turnovers, but giving you reasons as to why some of those happened. Do I think he can play better? Absolutely. Do I think I can help him out and be better? Absolutely. Do I think we can play better around him? Absolutely. I just think it’s too much to put it on one person. I really do. I think collectively, we have to be better, and I expect better. We performed at a pretty high level the majority of the season and then took a dive. That’s why it feels, I’d say, different than a year ago.”

“That’s a good question,” Love replied. “I think there’s obviously areas that I improved on, that the team improved on, and there’s some stuff I want to clean up, be better at, for sure. That’s the nature of the game. It’s never going to be perfect. There are always going to be things to get better at and improve on. That’ll definitely be part of the offseason. Just go back, watch the games, and make lists of things I can improve on and be better at. But I think we did some really good things as an offense, and I think there’s a lot of stuff that we left out there that we could have done a lot better.”

“The one thing I did talk to him about was just the consistency of his footwork on some of these plays,” LaFleur added. “I think the foundation of great quarterback play is the fundamentals, the techniques, the footwork. And I think we experienced that with him this year when he wasn’t practicing. It wasn’t quite as crisp. So I do think back to the injury deal that was a big deal when he wasn’t practicing. And just how conscious we have to be about all the fundamentals when we are practicing. So that’ll be on the forefront of our minds all the time.”

Packers GM Brian Gutekunst also thinks that the team’s success rides on more than just one player and noted that the team would not rule out adding a wide receiver during the offseason.

“I think we have some of those guys, and I think we don’t have just one,” Gutekunst said. “I think historically if you look at a lot of the teams, very rarely do teams that have one receiver that’s super heavy with targets, that doesn’t usually play out well for playoffs and success there.”

“[If] that makes some sense for us, we’ll certainly look to do that, but we’re also looking for these guys to continue to grow and hopefully grow into that space. This is really more for our football team and an offense as a whole, but just consistency, being able to control the game whenever we need to control the game,” Gutekunst continued. “I think there was times we were exceptionally explosive this year, but I want to see us be able to control the game however we need to. Whether that’s through the run game, the pass game, you always want to be explosive because, as Matt says, that leads to points. But at the same time, situational football and being more consistent as an offense is something we can be better at, and I think we will.”