NFC Notes: Thomas Brown, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Bears, Lions, Panthers

Bears

Thomas Brown reflected on his increased workload since being named Chicago’s new interim head coach, commenting on how he took time to approach players and develop game plans.  

“What I realized is if you increase tasks to your day, you forget about food,” Brown said, via the team’s YouTube. “I went a couple days and just really didn’t eat. Didn’t really think about it. Wasn’t hungry. I was thinking about the next moment, what to say to this player, doing game planning and I look up and I’m almost 30 pounds down. So, we’ll keep going, see how long it lasts.”

It’s been Brown’s focus to always “be the best I can be.”

“I kind of have my own thought process of it,” Brown said. “I’ve always had the thought process every job I’ve had try to excel at a high level. What I realized about this profession is if you are bad at your job, they move on from you. If you’re good at your job, they give you an opportunity to stay around. If you’re great at your job, you get elevated. So, my thought process was always to be the best I can be, not make it about myself and let the chips fall where they may.”

Brown described how his coaching style is to help players excel instead of chasing perfection. 

“I don’t really care about them being perfect,” Brown said. “I want them to be excellent. I can nitpick at every single play and tell a guy how he wasn’t perfect. And, so, perfection’s not the goal. It’s to excel at your craft, use your talent, combine your skills and play for each other.”

Lions

Lions WR Amon-Ra St. Brown said that he believes that preparation prior to gameday will make them the best team in football.

“Whatever happens is going to happen throughout the year, but I want to be the hardest practicing team, the best practicing team in the league,” St. Brown said, via ESPN. “Because at the end of the day, if you practice hard, the games are going to take care of itself.”

Lions QB Jared Goff said that St. Brown’s approach to the game reminded him of Rams great DL Aaron Donald.

“The way I compare him to Aaron [Donald] is just that when he steps on that grass, he’s not messing around,” Goff said. “There’s no funny business. We’re out there to work and Aaron was that same way. In the locker room, we have fun, and we joke around, and Aaron was that way, too, but there was a clear flip that switched when we get between the white lines, and I think I see that with him every day.”

Panthers

Panthers HC Dave Canales said QB Bryce Young‘s decisiveness has allowed him to look much better after his benching.

“It’s confidence and it’s decisiveness,” Canales said, via Panthers Wire. “It’s knowing what the concept is, getting a preview of what’s happening from a coverage standpoint and making quick decisions. And if you can play on time, throw to the first open guy and progress quickly, get to your scrambles—once you’re above that 2.7 [seconds]—you activate that second play. As our QB coach Will Harriger always likes to say, he’s like, ‘Activate the second play. Baller mode. Here we go.’ He’s getting to those things and he’s winning the down.”

“He’s finding ways to win. And that’s kinda my message, always, to quarterbacks that I’ve been talkin’ to forever is—find a win in every play. Sometimes, it’s that on-time completion. Sometimes, it’s the off-schedule play. Sometimes, it’s the throwaway. Sometimes, it’s a sack—end the play with the ball, they got us. So there’s different ways to win the down so that we can have opportunities. And he’s just doing a really great job of being decisive.”