Bears
Bears HC Ben Johnson said he has the backing of chairman George McCaskey after an explicit-filled rant towards the Packers.
“There’s a rivalry that exists between these two teams, something that I fully recognize and I’m a part of,” Johnson said, via ESPN. “And, yeah, I just, I don’t like that team. So George and I have talked, and we’re on the same page.”
Bears LB Tremaine Edmunds said that Johnson’s energy has resonated throughout the locker room, and they’ve rallied around him.
“It was definitely a turned-up moment,” Edmunds said. “You could just see the energy in the locker room. Everybody was like, ‘OK, Ben got a little swag about himself.’ Know what I mean? We all put a lot into this. To be able to act off your true emotions and your true personality, I think that’s what it was for him. I don’t know if he’s had regrets about it, but I know the fans loved, I know every[thing] about this rivalry that we been talking about, it goes so far back. You know there’s a lot of emotion built up into it and any time that you can win in that fashion, you’ve got to show a little bit of emotion for sure.”
Packers
Packers OLB Micah Parsons said that HC Matt LaFleur was a major part in why he chose to come to Green Bay.
“I reached out to him when I started seeing this, and I said, ‘Man, when I agreed to come here, you were part of the reason why I came here, I want you a part of this and I love you and I think you’re a great coach,‘” Parsons said, via ESPN. “And he appreciated those words, and we had a brief conversation, but Matt, I think he’s a great guy and I just think he cares so much, like he cares so much about the players.”
Green Bay is currently negotiating a new contract for LaFleur to return to the team next season.
“I think he belongs here, man,” WR Jayden Reed said. “The past three years I’ve been here, I’ve been in the playoffs every year. He’s created a winning atmosphere here. I think he’s a great coach. I don’t really have any opinions of others in that situation. I feel pretty good about him.”
Parsons added that the team’s downfall had nothing to do with LaFleur’s coaching and had everything to do with the players.
“You can get spoiled with a good coach and good people, and you don’t realize until they’re gone and I don’t want to be at that point where we realize like, ‘Damn, we let such a great coach go,‘” Parsons said. “Because at one point the players — you talk about do your job, right? You talk about coach, I mean this team put up what, how many points do they score? Twenty-seven? Twenty-seven points in a playoff game. I always told you, if my team puts up 21 points, we should win that game. We put up 27 points and we miss six, seven on special teams, that’s 34 points and you’re talking about, you want to get rid of a coach. At one point players have to have accountability and that’s something that I’m challenging us as players that we need to take, we need to have accountability. How do we let that game go?”
Vikings
- Vikings HC Kevin O’Connell said he wants a “competitive situation” at quarterback during camp, but also spoke highly of QB J.J. McCarthy. (Kevin Seifert)
- Minnesota GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah said “time is on our side” with OT Christian Darrisaw recovering from his knee injury, but admitted “we’ve probably got to be more mindful” about making sure they have enough depth at the position. (Seifert)
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