{"id":42690,"date":"2026-08-27T00:08:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T00:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/42690\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T00:08:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T00:08:11","slug":"nfc-notes-harrison-smith-rome-odunze-bears-lions-vikings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/42690\/","title":{"rendered":"NFC Notes: Harrison Smith, Rome Odunze, Bears, Lions, Vikings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bears OC Press Taylor said that WR Rome Odunze<\/a> has made a significant jump in his development and should take on a more prominent role in the offense.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Rome\u2019s done a good job,\u201d Taylor said, via Bears Wire<\/a>. \u201cIf he hadn\u2019t said anything about his foot being different, I don\u2019t think you would have noticed because of what you\u2019re seeing like his speed and even more the detail in his routes. He understands where he\u2019s supposed to be. You see the explosion and contested catch ability he has, and we\u2019ve made it a point of emphasis to push the ball downfield on some contested go balls to feature that strength. He\u2019s made his fair share of plays on those, so that\u2019s encouraging.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Courtney Cronin,<\/a> Bears OL Darnell Wright<\/a> is \u201cfine\u201d after leaving Tuesday\u2019s practice early with what appeared to be an elbow injury.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lions HC Dan Campbell<\/a> said the team is planning to give reps to OL Tate Ratledge<\/a> at center in an effort to replace C Cade Mays<\/a> after he suffered a wrist injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to work him a little bit. I don\u2019t know how much we\u2019ll do in team, but certainly we\u2019re going to be snapping him some pre-practice. And then he\u2019s been going through some of the calls, things like that. So, we\u2019re just prepared. We\u2019ve got to be willing to go wherever we can go with this,\u201d Campbell said of Ratledge playing center, via Lions Wire<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lions OL Juice Scruggs<\/a> also figures to become a potential replacement for Mays at center.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ll get Juice back today to where he can work a little bit and hopefully each day he gets more and more reps\u2026 Get him back and kind of see where that is. Bartch is back. He\u2019ll be getting more and more reps. Let Mahogany and Bartch, you know, go at it over there at the left guard. And then obviously, we\u2019re evaluating Juice too at center with Seth or is it Ratledge. We\u2019ve got to find the five best, and so this is an ongoing battle,\u201d Campbell said.<\/p>\n

Veteran S Harrison Smith<\/a> remains a free agent as he enters the 15th year of his career. Vikings LB Blake Cashman<\/a> said Smith has earned the right to take his time to decide on his future, but the team is missing him during training camp.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI will say Harry\u2019s earned the right to take as much time as he needs and wants,\u201d Cashman said, via Eduardo Razo of Yahoo Sports<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019m sure there\u2019s different dialogue between him, his agent, and the coaching staff, but the guy\u2019s earned the right, I think, not to be here for the meantime if that\u2019s what he chooses. If he does choose to come back, or not, that\u2019s his decision. We do miss him, and we\u2019ve got to fill that void, but that\u2019s what training camp is for, to get those reps in and practice that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cashman said Smith is one of the favorite teammates he\u2019s ever had, and the safety is great at aligning their defense on the field.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, one of my favorite teammates I\u2019ve had the privilege to play with,\u201d Cashman said. \u201cIn this defense, when linebackers got to give checks up front, the secondary, really Harry, his job was to get us organized in the back end, especially on second-and-long and third down. Those are critical winning downs in this league. To have a guy like Harry the past couple years for me to play with, he brings a very calm presence. And when you feel calm, you\u2019re confident. The defense is very organized when he\u2019s on the back end making those checks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier this offseason, HC Kevin O\u2019Connell<\/a> said he had a great conversation with Smith, and they\u2019ll continue the dialogue ahead of the season opener.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI would just say I spoke to him recently, just like I always do, and we had a great conversation,\u201d O\u2019Connell said. \u201cNothing has really changed. But there was never an expectation, at least on my end or our end. I believe that now would be the time we would really dive into that, and we\u2019ll continue to have dialogue with him and keep you guys updated if there were to be anything come about with that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bears OC Press Taylor said that WR Rome Odunze has made a significant jump in his development and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42691,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[27882,27883,27884,24970,27885,27886,27887,27888,27889,27890,27891,27,923,27892],"class_list":["post-42690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rome","tag-blake-cashman","tag-cade-mays","tag-carson-wentz","tag-dan-campbell","tag-darnell-wright","tag-harrison-smith","tag-j-j-mccarthy","tag-juice-scruggs","tag-kevin-oconnell","tag-kevin-seifert","tag-press-taylor","tag-rome","tag-rome-odunze","tag-tate-ratledge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}