Bears

Bears GM Ryan Poles said after drafting rookie S Dillon Thieneman that having a strong secondary could help the team generate a stronger pass rush.

“If you help the secondary, you know, they’re related to a degree,” Poles said after drafting Thieneman, via ESPN. “Obviously, the D-line helps the back end more often than not. But in this situation where we have good corners, good safeties, we can be in a position where maybe we can have the quarterback hold the ball a little longer.”

Bears HC Ben Johnson believes in the personnel they currently have and thinks better coaching will help elevate the players they already have.

“We’re certainly going to coach better than what we did a year ago,” Johnson said. “It starts there. We’ve made a concerted effort with how we’re going to get that done. We were excited about the guys that ended up finishing the season on IR, the trajectory that they were on, both Dayo [Odeyingbo] and Shemar [Turner]. When you look at it from the start of the season to the point where they both got injured, we saw growth and we saw them trending the right direction in terms of what we want to see on game day. [Montez] Sweat had one of his better years in the NFL, whether that shows up in the sack total or not. He’s a very complete player, both run game and pass game. And you saw tremendous growth from [Austin] Booker when we were able to get him back as well. The combination of us being able to coach better and those guys taking the next step as part of this system, we’ve got some pretty good pieces to work with.”

Lions

• According to Jeremy Fowler of ESPN, the Lions made trade calls before the 2026 NFL Draft to get ahead in the offensive tackle market, and moving up two to four selections was an option for them. 
• Although OT Kadyn Proctor was believed to be a target for Detroit, their eventual pick of Blake Miller became “magma-hot” late in the process.
• One NFC executive considered Miller to be the best tackle in the draft: “He’s the best tackle in the draft.”
• As for fifth-round WR Kendrick Law, Fowler writes that Detroit believes they found a “tough, versatile player who’s good with the ball in his hands.”

Vikings

Vikings rookie OT Caleb Tiernan said that his arm length won’t stop him from being a dominant lineman in the NFL.

“A lot of those come from people who probably don’t know football that well,” Tiernan said, via Vikings Wire. “It’s not an arm length competition on the field. It’s a physicality competition. I feel like I’ve got that, and that’s what’s allowed me to succeed.”