Bears

Bears rookie DB Dillon Thieneman said that the team is primarily listing him as a strong safety, but he’s learning free safety as well.

“I mean just more in the backhand,” Thieneman said when asked about what he expects his specific role to be, via Bears Wire. “They want me to know both positions. So just know all of the DB positions, but as of right now, I’m playing some strong safety, but still understanding what the free safety is doing.”

Lions

It seems that Lions DC Kelvin Sheppard is losing his patience with CB Terrion Arnold, whose name has been in the headlines recently for the wrong reasons. Sheppard wants to see Arnold unlock his true potential and be a great player rather than just talk about it.

“I need him to be quiet and just play,” Sheppard said of Arnold at the NFL Combine, via Colton Pouncy of The Athletic. “He wants to be great, but I told him (there’s) a difference between talking about being great and actually being great, and he’s starting to understand that.”

Packers

Packers sixth-round K Trey Smack was a lacrosse teammate with the son of former NFL K Matt Stover.

“One day after a practice, they were farting around with this football and my son came home and said, ‘Dad, you wouldn’t believe how Trey Smack kicks a football,'” Stover told ESPN.

Stover will evaluate kickers with either one kick and immediate feedback or several kicks, followed by feedback. Smack chose to kick just one football.

“‘He’s done with lacrosse. He has a pro leg at [age] 16, and nobody’s taught him how to do that. He just has the talent.'” Stover told Smack’s mother. “And that’s what Trey had. And I can tell you I did the same thing for [former NFL kickers] Phil Dawson and Mason Crosby.”

“They locked up all the lacrosse goals in Maryland, and so I was like, ‘Well, they can’t take down the field goal posts,'” Smack said, as he began to practice during the pandemic. “So, I started kicking, started doing my thing, and somehow I went to a camp nine months down the line and got ranked 13th in the nation.”

“I was like, ‘OK, maybe I should do this,'” Smack added on having reached No.1 just a year later. Stover then agreed to coach Smack and help him correct his form.

“There was a flaw in Trey’s form that I told him if he didn’t manage it, it’s going to cause him a lot of problems,” Stover said. “It’s a power move, and you have a lot of power, but you can lose accuracy. And so he listened deeply on it, and he no longer does that.”