NFC Notes: Kenny Clark, Jared Goff, Lions, Packers, Vikings

Lions

Lions QB Jared Goff reflected on the trade that brought him to Detroit after he was selected first overall by the Rams, calling it the greatest thing that has ever happened to him. 

“In hindsight, [being traded to the Lions] was the greatest thing that ever happened to me, for my career and my development as a human,” Goff said, via Jared Ramsey of the Detroit Free Press. “Being shipped off and being sent to a place to die, essentially, is what a lot of people think it was and I was never going to allow that to happen. I’m fortunate enough to be around a lot of good coaches and players in Detroit that support me and help me reach my potential.”

• British Columbia OT Giovanni Manu had an official 30 visit with the Lions, per Jordan Schultz. 
• Detroit hosted Illinois DT Jer’Zhan Newton on a pre-draft visit last week, per Jeff Risdon of the Lions Wire. 

Packers

Packers DT Kenny Clark is hopeful that the team will be more effective up front this season with new DC Jeff Hafley.

“Fiery, his energy . . . he’s going to bring it,” Clark said, via the team’s website. “He’s going to challenge everybody — challenge everybody to be great. That’s what you want as a coach. You want them to hold guys accountable. I think this scheme . . . it’ll be good for us up front. It’s going to allow us to be way more disruptive.”

Vikings

Vikings GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah was asked about the team’s plans in the upcoming draft which many could speculate will include drafting a quarterback. However, Adofo-Mensah told reporters that he has no plans of forcing a trade just to obtain a quarterback.

“You have to be ready for everything,” Adofo-Mensah said, via Kevin Seifert of ESPN. “It’s a very deep class. But I do think you have to be ready for every scenario. If there’s elite players at premium positions on the board, I don’t think you’re supposed to reach or force or anything like that. It’s just not what I believe, all the while understanding that [quarterback] is the most important position in the sport. So, it’s calculating both those things at the same time.”

“You’re in a blind auction in a sense,” Adofo-Mensah continued. “And you don’t know when the next person is going to raise their hand and call a name. And so, you’ve really just got to be strategic about how you position yourself. At the end of the day, you’ve got to ask yourself, ‘Am I going to regret not doing this trade? If that player gets picked this spot, whatever this spot is, and I was willing to give up this? Can I sleep at night?’ That’s how we’ve got to look at the board in every place. And then we’ll come up with our valuations for every player in that way, and we’ll make our calls and we’ll go from there. And ultimately, if the league is willing to do something that we are not willing to do, we can’t let that necessarily dictate our actions.”

“If you look at our offseason, it’s kind of the go between, between quarterback assets and everything else,” Adofo-Mensah concluded. “I think our draft will follow the same suit. I don’t think you want to necessarily go take these huge swings and not be able to build a team around them. There are multiple guys that we are in love with just on an outright basis. We’ve got a great plan and we feel great about where we are.”

• UCF WR Javon Baker had an official 30 visit with the Vikings. (Aaron Wilson)