Bears

Bears HC Ben Johnson believes that OT Braxton Jones will bounce back in 2026 after being hampered by injuries last season.

“He still didn’t feel 100% like himself,” Johnson said, via Bears Wire. “What he put on tape those first four games, he didn’t feel like was very reflective of what he’s capable of. Looking back at it, we would agree with that. There’s more in there than what we saw. He came in when he signed the contract and he looked like a brand-new man. This guy was beefed up… He’s very determined to get his career trajectory back to where it was before.”

Lions

Lions President Rod Wood said that signing DE Trey Hendrickson or trading for Raiders DE Maxx Crosby would’ve caused them to have to move on from home-grown players that they weren’t willing to do.

“When we’re looking at our cash and cap budget, we’re looking at it as is and as it will be with those guys knowing that we want to keep many of them, all of them if we can,” Wood said, via Detroit Free Press. “So if we had gone out and done the biggest – let’s say we did the Maxx Crosby trade or the Trey Hendrickson signing, that probably would have meant, which one of these guys are we going to let go?”

Wood added that the team will likely find its long-term running mate for DE Aidan Hutchinson in the draft.

“I know you and everybody else thinks we need to have a partner to Hutch,” Wood said. “And it reminds me so much of everybody said we needed to have another receiver opposite Calvin [Johnson]. And when you have one of those guys, trying to get another one is really hard. How many teams have two? It’d almost be like you have a great starting quarterback as a backup, because there just aren’t enough guys to go around. And then if you pay one like we did with Aidan, to try and pay another one, let’s say you did and let’s say you now have $75 million or $80 million of your cap tied up with your pass rushers, you’re giving up something else. So would we love to have another great pass rusher? Yeah, but we’ll probably have to find him in the draft vs. we go out and pay top dollar for him.“

Vikings

The Vikings named executive Rob Brzezinski their interim general manager after firing former GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah in January. When speaking to reporters at the NFL’s annual meetings, owner Mark Wilf said Brzezinski has done a great job at building a consensus and strategy this offseason. 

“He’s done an outstanding job in terms of in the building, building consensus, strategy,” Wilf said, via Kevin Seifert of ESPN.