Bears
Bears veteran G Joe Thuney has played in 100% of the team’s offensive snaps this season, continuing the dependability he showed throughout his 10-year career. Chicago C Drew Dalman said Thuney has been a great leader for their entire offensive line.
“He’s an incredible guy, an incredible teammate, an incredible player,” Dalman said, via Albert Breer of SI. “That’s instantly going to raise the level of the room when everybody sees how he works and how he performs. Just having a guy that does it the right way and plays as well as he does and is as good of a worker and teammate in the room, it makes it pretty natural that you’re going to want to follow his lead.”
Lions
Lions WR Jameson Williams finished Week 13’s Thanksgiving loss to the Packers with seven receptions on 10 targets for 144 yards and a touchdown. Williams said he got more opportunities after Amon-Ra St. Brown left the game with an ankle injury, but points out that they still lost the game.
“I just got more opportunities,” Williams said, via Tim Twentyman of the team’s site. “That was it. I just executed on the opportunities. I should have did it more. We came out with a loss. What I did doesn’t even matter because we lost.”
Lions HC Dan Campbell believes Williams will step up in St. Brown’s absence and thinks his confidence is growing.
“He’s really grown and he continues to grow and get better,” Campbell said. “He’s fearless. His fundamentals for the speed and quickness he has and the ability for him to drop his weight now and there’s really some detail to his route. He’s become a hard cover. Then you see the run after the catch ability. His confidence is growing. Our confidence is growing. He’s doing well. You should have seen him running (Monday). This guy works now. He works in practice every day and love where he’s at.”
Williams reflected on failing to reel in a catch on 4th-and-3 that hit off his hands after the pass was a little behind him. Williams is taking accountability for the play despite the poor placement of the ball.
“It’s a drop. That’s why I really did all that after the play,” Williams said. “No matter where the ball is at, as a receiver you got to make plays, and the blame don’t go on the quarterback. It goes on us, and that’s not even putting it down on my quarterback. I’m not even saying that. I’m saying it’s my fault because I dropped the ball. He gave me the opportunity. I just got to make the best of the opportunity and move the sticks for us. I move the sticks right there — it could be a whole different game changer for us. It was a big play to me. No matter what happened in the game before that, you just got to look at the play right now, and I just got to make the best of that play and bring that one in for us, man.”
Packers
Packers DT Devonte Wyatt will miss the remainder of the season due to a fractured ankle, and HC Matt LaFleur told the media he will be tough to replace.
“Yeah, it’s tough, but that is the nature of our game,” LaFleur said, via the team’s website. “Certainly, he’s a guy that’s going to be pretty tough to replace. I think it just falls on everybody else kind of raising the level of their game.”
- LaFleur said they will ramp up CB Nate Hobbs (knee) in practice this week and will see how he looks on Sunday: “He’s made a lot of progress.” (Ryan Wood)
- LaFleur says plan for WR Jayden Reed this week is to see where he’s at by week’s end: “He’s got to get cleared first.” (Ryan Wood)
- LaFleur says first-round WR Matthew Golden could “potentially” play this week. (Weston Hodkiewicz)
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