Bears

Bears CB Tyrique Stevenson went viral last year for his interaction with a fan during the Hail Mary against the Commanders. Stevenson knows that it will forever be a part of his career, and he talked about how he got over a low point in his life and used it to get his confidence back on the field. 

“It’s forever burned on my career,” Stevenson said, via Dan Wiederer of The Athletic.

“With that incident, the biggest thing I did was continually push it aside,” Stevenson says. “And rationalize it. Like, ‘Every football player has a bad play.’ Instead of looking at it head-on and accepting that that was me in that moment and that I needed to fix some things about myself.”

“Why was I letting it linger? Was that affecting my personality? Was it affecting me on the field? Was it affecting the things I was doing on a daily basis?”

“In reality, it was. I was playing football not to make plays but to not make mistakes. I was being self-conscious instead of playing with the confidence that I do this for a living and I’m good at it. I was walking on eggshells when I didn’t need to be.”

• Per Zack Pearson, Bears CB Kyler Gordon said he expects to make his season debut in Week 6 against the Commanders. 
• Chicago first-round TE Colston Loveland said he feels good about his hip injury and mentioned it’s similar to something he dealt with at Michigan. He’s not concerned about it lingering through the season: “I was over it pretty quickly. I knew it wasn’t a season-ending injury. I was itching to get back as soon as possible.” (Courtney Cronin)

Packers

Packers WR Christian Watson returned to practice for the first time after suffering a torn ACL near the end of last season. Watson says he’ll be ready to suit up on game days when he feels 100 percent with no mental or physical setbacks, instead of setting a concrete date. 

“Honestly, my goal for coming back to play is whenever I feel like I’ve put in the work enough and I’m confident after getting the team reps, getting the live reps and there are no setbacks,” Watson said, via ESPN’s Rob Demovsky.

“I want to get back and have felt 100 percent and continue to feel 100 percent. That’s my main thing. I’m not setting too much of a target date, this week or anything. It’s really just as soon as I feel like I’m 100 percent and ready to go is when I’ll play.”

• Watson says he felt 100 percent in his return to practice, but admitted he has some rust to knock off: “Obviously, I was super anxious to just be able to get back to football. It meant a lot to me to be able to get out there.” (Matt Schneidman)

Vikings

• Matt Zenitz reports the plan is for Vikings QB J.J. McCarthy to be at the team’s facility this week during the bye with other players to throw and continue working back from an ankle injury. 

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