Lions

Lions DE Aidan Hutchinson said he’s moving on from a disappointing 2025 campaign and is focused on getting healthy and coming out strong in 2026.

“It just sucks,” Hutchinson said, via Detroit Free Press. “We just couldn’t quite put it together how we wanted to as a team this year in all phases, at different times. So it sucks. But it’s something that you got to move on from and the beautiful thing about football is people really only care about what you do next so that’s why I’m kind of moving on to next year.”

Hutchinson added that he believes the team is better than it performed last season and expects to get back in contention in 2026.

“I think over these last few years we’ve built who we are and sometimes you have a season like that and it can be a little discouraging,” Hutchinson said. “And I think next year we’ll be right back on track and it’ll just be like a blip in the Lions era, for sure. In the Dan Campbell era.”

• The Lions are promoting assistant offensive line coach Steve Oliver to tight ends coach. (Tom Pelissero)

Packers

The Packers struggled at the end of their season, suffering five straight losses, including their Wild Card defeat to the Bears. Although Green Bay GM Brian Gutekunst feels they played at a “championship” level at some points, they weren’t consistent enough in the end. 

“We had an opportunity to kind of round into form there in the second half of the season, and obviously it didn’t work out that way,” Gutekunst said, via Rob Demovsky of ESPN. “So I did think there were moments that we played at a very, very high level — championship-football-type level — but it wasn’t consistent enough. We didn’t sustain it. As we go into this offseason, we continue to evaluate 2025 before we get on to 2026. It’s on the front of our minds.”

Gutekunst points out that they have struggled in December and January for the last two years.

“I think we’re 3-9 the last two years,” Gutekunst said. “So we’re looking at that from a lot of different angles to make sure that we’re playing our best football in December and January.”

Gutekunst stood behind HC Matt LaFleur, saying he’s still the coach who can get them to where they want to be. 

“He’s an excellent football coach,” Gutekunst said. “To get where we’re going, he’s the guy we need. I think he’s as eager as anybody to get back at it. Nobody’s really satisfied, obviously, with kind of how the season ended. We’ve been through this before, where as soon as the season ends, you want to get started on the next one because you’re just not satisfied with where we want to be. But along with Russ, I think the three of us over the last seven years have really found a really good working relationship, where we can lean on each other and support each other. Happy obviously we’re all coming back.”

Vikings

Vikings WR Justin Jefferson said QB J.J. McCarthy is his quarterback “as of right now” and is planning to work with him this offseason to get him where he needs to be.

“As of right now, J.J. is my quarterback,” Jefferson said, via Around The NFL. “So for me, it’s getting him to where we need to go. It starts off right now in the offseason and gis etting better now.”

Jefferson admitted that McCarthy didn’t have his best season, but still believes there is enough there for him to improve and become a good quarterback.

“Obviously, it wasn’t the most spectacular thing. Those are things that he understands and we all understand as a building, that there are some things to work on,” Jefferson said. “But J.J. is a really good quarterback. He’s a really good guy personally to sit there and talk to. He’s a really good leader and great motivator.”

Jefferson doesn’t care who is behind center but expects to get back to being a contender quickly.

“I don’t care,” Jefferson said. “That’s not my decision. That’s not my main priority, and I’ve said that multiple times. I don’t really care who’s throwing that ball. But the person that’s throwing that ball needs to throw that ball and needs to lead us to that big dance at the end of the season.“