NFC Notes: Taylor Decker, Justin Fields, Bears, Lions, Vikings

Bears

Amidst the drama surrounding the Bears’ quarterback situation, Chicago LB T.J. Edwards chimed in how he feels about QB Justin Fields. Edwards spoke very highly about Fields to the media at Super Bowl Week, advocating for why he should be brought back.

“What I love about him is I could tell him Day 1 what kind of guy he is,” Edwards said, via Jarrett Payton of GNSportsTV. “He’s a calm, cool, collected type, and playing quarterback in this league — especially in Chicago — you’ve got to be that. You can’t be too overzealous at times, you kind of have to be right in the middle, where we can look to you at times when it’s going bad and know he’s going to make a play, and he did that.” Edwards added, “Playing against him, from experience, I hope he stays with us because I don’t want to play against him ever again.”

• Former Bears and current Raiders OC Luke Getsy thinks Fields showed tremendous growth and was great to work with: “Tremendous growth for Justin…like I said when I was there, he’s one of the best human beings I’ve ever got to work with. It’s just the mentality that he brought every day, the consistent approach, the kind of man that he is. Just really, it was a blessing to work with him and he was someone that just came to work every day to get better and better, and I think he’ll continue to do so,” via Paul Gutierrez. 

Lions

Lions veteran OT Taylor Decker, who is entering the final year of his contract, said he would like to play out his career in Detroit but they haven’t had any substantial extension talks thus far. 

“I definitely want to end my career here,” Decker said, via Kyle Meinke of MLive. “I would say ultimately, for me, this is where I want to be. Of course you want money, but for me, I like being here. I love being here. I was able to be a part of climbing out of the trenches of it, and it’s been fun the past year-and-a-half to see the flip side of it. Whatever happens with the contract, I don’t know. There’s been nothing of substance with (negotiations) so far. But ultimately, do I want to be here forever? One-hundred percent. So, we’ll see.”

Decker has a deeper sense of pride being on the Lions based on their previous unsuccessful seasons. Now, Detroit is a contender in the NFC North. 

“I think the thing that makes it the most meaningful for me was kind of the bad times,” Decker said. “When we weren’t winning and nobody wanted to watch us play, and nobody thought we were a good team, nobody ever thought we were going to get it right and get it going in the right direction. But that’s just one of those instances where you just keep showing up, and you keep putting the work in, because the Lions are going to play football on Sunday whether I’m out there or not. And it was important to me, and it’s been important to me to be a part of that, because I feel like that’s what I was brought here for. I feel like I was brought here to try and be a piece to help the team win, and it took a long time, man.”

Decker is unsure of how it’d feel to play under the final year of his contract in 2024 but is fine with how things are playing out at this point. 

“I don’t know. There are a lot of moving parts with all that stuff. I’ve been super fortunate to get a big second contract here. Would I love to have a third one? Of course. But ultimately, long term, I do want to be here, and however that pans out is to be determined. So, I mean, hopefully it’ll be a non-issue, and I’ll still be playing here at 35 years old. But so far, (talks have) just been really surface level. There’s a lot of moving parts, and I’m fine with that at this point.”

Vikings

• Vikings OC Wes Phillips will plead guilty to a charge of careless driving that derived from his December 8th arrest, via Kevin Seifert of ESPN. Originally, Phillips was charged with a 4th-degree DWI, and he will pay $378 in fees along with serving eight hours of community service.