Lions

Lions GM Brad Holmes admitted that he has always admired former Chiefs RB Isiah Pacheco from a distance and jumped at the chance to add him as a backfield complement to RB Jahmyr Gibbs.

“Getting Pacheco, me and Dan have always been big fans of Pacheco,” Holmes said. “It’s his mindset and his intent in how he runs. As you know, it’s hard to get yards in this league, and those holes close up quick. And so, if you have the right mindset, you can get a lot of hidden yards — if you just have a little bit more desire. So, I think he’s going to be a really good complement. Always been a fan from afar, just love how he runs [since] he’s been in the league. And we don’t expect anything different to being a really good complement to Jahmyr.”

Packers

Packers RB coach Ben Sirmans said that RB MarShawn Lloyd is feeling great heading into the season but is careful about being too optimistic with his health.

“He talked about how much stronger he is just in his lower half of his body. Stronger than he’s ever been,” Sirmans said, via Packers Wire. “So with all those things, it’s giving him confidence and he’s got a regimen that he does before we even go out to practice. We’re very optimistic, but we’ve all been optimistic before, so we just gotta wait and see what’s going to happen. But he feels confident, I feel confident that he’s finally gotten to that point where he can be in there and be ready to play a full season.”

Vikings

The Vikings finally began their search for a new GM after exec Rob Brzezinski handled the de facto GM duties during free agency and the draft. Per Jason La Canfora of SportsBoom, other execs around the league wonder why Minnesota doesn’t just promote Brzezinski, given the respect he has within the organization and his established relationships in the building.

“Why wouldn’t they just promote Rob?” one general manager asked. “He understands the job and he’s respected there. He has a working relationship with (head coach Kevin) O’Connell. He has relationships with the agents. Make some hires to build up the personnel department under him, but don’t overthink it.”

Another GM understands the desire to do a thorough search because it’s an attractive opening, but he ultimately expects them to promote Brzezinski as well.

“They’re going to promote Rob, right? I understand wanting to talk to other people, and that’s a great job and I think anybody would want to work with Kevin O’Connell. Great coach and we hear he’s pretty easy to work with. Rob can handle so much of the administrative stuff, and you can bring in football people to help with the scouting and evaluations.”