NFC North

Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell wonders whether star receiver Justin Jefferson is being targeted by opposing teams.

"I think it's about the fifth or sixth week in a row he took a type of hit that drew a flag," he told reporters Monday. "Clearly, there's an emphasis on the teams we're playing that some of those hits, they don't just seem to be by accident at times."

In the fourth quarter of the Vikings' 39-36 overtime win over the Indianapolis Colts on Saturday, referees flagged Colts safety Rodney Thomas II for unnecessary roughness for a hit on Jefferson. On the Vikings' next drive, Colts cornerback Stephon Gilmore was flagged for unnecessary roughness against Jefferson as well.

NFL Network's Tom Pelissero noted the Minnesota staff took exception to the latter sequence:

The two-time Pro Bowler leads the NFL in receptions (111) and receiving yards (1,623), and he has eclipsed 150 yards on four occasions. Calvin Johnson's single-season record (1,964 yards) is within reach over the final three weeks.

Because of his consistency, Jefferson will always be a focal point of a team's defensive game plan. O'Connell seems to believe the Vikings' opponents are crossing a line when it comes to covering the dynamic wideout.

The Green Bay Packers face the Los Angeles Rams on Monday, but they reportedly made a move ahead of the contest at Lambeau Field.

According to Tom Pelissero of NFL Network, the NFC North team released wide receiver Sammy Watkins. The Clemson product will go on waivers as a result.

Green Bay signed Watkins to a one-year deal this offseason as it overhauled the wide receiver position.

Its most notable move was trading Davante Adams to the Las Vegas Raiders, but it also lost Marquez Valdes-Scantling to free agency and drafted Christian Watson in the second round. Watson has emerged in the second half of the season with eight total touchdowns in his last four games.

As for Watkins, he went on injured reserve in September with a hamstring setback and has not been much of a factor all year.

He has just 13 catches for 206 yards and zero touchdowns in nine games, and the Week 2 win over the Chicago Bears before his injury was the only time he went over 47 yards in a single game.

The lack of production comes after the 29-year-old posted career-low numbers across the board in 2021 for the Baltimore Ravens with 27 catches for 394 yards and one touchdown.

Perhaps another team will take a chance on Watkins considering there was a time when he was a dangerous offensive weapon. His best individual season came in 2015 when he tallied 60 catches for 1,047 yards and nine touchdowns as a member of the Buffalo Bills.

Yet he hasn't been able to replicate those totals in subsequent stops on the Los Angeles Rams, Kansas City Chiefs, Ravens and Packers and heads to waivers as the 2022 season approaches the final push ahead of the playoffs.

Justin Fields continues to provide the Chicago Bears with a glimpse into the future, albeit in a losing effort.

The Philadelphia Eagles hung on for a 25-20 victory at Soldier Field in Chicago.

A breakdown in coverage by the Eagles secondary allowed Fields to hit Byron Pringle for a 35-yard touchdown pass to bring Chicago to within one score with two minutes, 43 seconds on the clock.

Philadelphia recovered the ensuing onside kick, though, and killed off the remaining time to secure their 13th win.

Fields finished 14-of-21 for 152 yards and two touchdowns while carrying the ball 15 times for 95 yards.

The Bears' 3-11 record and the six sacks the Eagles collected show how far Chicago still has to go. Between Fields' improvement and the roughly $122 million in projected salary-cap space it can spend for 2023, the franchise can potentially execute a significant turnaround.

Sunday's game was also notable for Fields setting a single-season rushing record for a Bears quarterback and becoming the third QB to reach 1,000 rushing yards. After Week 14, he has run for exactly 1,000 yards.

As tough as this season has been, ask almost any Bears fan and they'll probably say they're more optimistic about the franchise's long-term direction than they were before the year kicked off. That's almost entirely down to Fields because Chicago might have a special talent at quarterback for the first time in a long time.

For now, things won't get any easier for Fields and the Bears in Week 16 as they host the 11-3 Buffalo Bills.

The Chicago Bears have ruled out offensive lineman Teven Jenkins for the remainder of Sunday's matchup with the Philadelphia Eagles with a neck injury.

Jenkins suffered the injury in the first quarter and was carted off the field:

Michael Schofield replaced Jenkins at right guard.

The 24-year-old Jenkins is in his second season with the Bears as a second-round pick out of Oklahoma State in the 2021 NFL draft. He's made 12 starts with Chicago, including 10 this year.

His injury added to the challenges of a beat-up Bears offense. Wide receiver Equanimeous St. Brown left the game before Jenkins with a concussion, while fellow wideouts Chase Claypool (knee) and N'Keal Harry (knee) are both out Sunday.

The Bears came into Sunday's matchup with the NFL's best team, the 12-1 Eagles, with a 3-10 record. Despite those struggles, it's been an exciting season given the ascendance of second-year quarterback Justin Fields.

The Bears appear to be heading down the stretch as a hobbled team, at least on offense. Losing offensive linemen isn't ideal as the Bears look to keep Fields upright.

Fields is an elite runner and seems to be at his best when the pocket collapses and the play breaks down. He may need to call upon that skill set even more given the injuries around him.

The hope will be that Jenkins' injury isn't as serious as it appeared.

It only took the Minnesota Vikings 14 games to clinch the NFC North and earn a playoff spot.

The Vikings (11-3) officially won the division Saturday with a miraculous 39-36 comeback victory over Indianapolis Colts.

Down 33-0 at halftime, the Vikings charged back to score 14 points in the third quarter and 22 points in the fourth quarter to force overtime, where Greg Joseph hit a 40-yard field goal to cap things.

Quarterback Kirk Cousins completed 34 of 54 passes for 460 yards and four touchdowns against two interceptions in the win. C.J. Ham, K.J. Osborn, Justin Jefferson, Dalvin Cook and Adam Thielen all recorded touchdowns.

The win is the largest comeback in NFL history, and it led to NFL Twitter being stunned by one of the greatest games of the year:

The only question is which playoff seed they'll secure.

The top overall seed in the NFC is still up for grabs, with the Vikings looking to keep pace with the Philadelphia Eagles (12-1). With the NFL moving to seven playoff teams per conference last year, only the top seed gets a first-round bye alongside home-field advantage.

So, while Minnesota will be pleased with its division crown, there's more work to be done to earn the crucial top spot in the NFC.

The Vikings will be happy with how far they've come this season, though, after finishing 8-9 last year and missing the playoffs for the second straight campaign. That ended the Mike Zimmer era, who led the team to the postseason three times in his eight-year tenure as head coach.

In came Kevin O'Connell, and the result has been a team that has emerged as one of the NFL's top contenders.

Of course, having an explosive playmaker at wideout in Jefferson doesn't hurt, nor does complementary pieces Cook, Thielen and T.J. Hockenson, who was acquired in a midseason trade with the Detroit Lions to bolster tight end.

And while Cousins is hardly among the NFL's elite quarterbacks, he's played well enough to keep the Vikings rolling. Ditto for the defense.

Add it all up, and you have a Vikings team that wrapped up the NFC North in December. Now, the question is whether this group will still be playing come February.

Having settled into his new surroundings with the Baltimore Ravens, Roquan Smith is looking back at the lead-up to the end of his time with the Chicago Bears.

Speaking to The Athletic's Dan Pompei, Smith said Bears general manager Ryan Poles told him "numerous times" that he didn't plan to trade him.

"So I was like, 'I guess I won't be going anywhere.' He said we'd talk at the end of the season," Smith said.

After contract talks stalled in training camp, Smith requested a trade Aug. 9. He said in a statement: "The new front office regime doesn't value me here. They've refused to negotiate in good faith, every step of this journey has been 'take it or leave it.'"

NFL Network's Ian Rapoport said on The Pat McAfee Show that Chicago made an offer that would have made Smith the NFL's highest-paid linebacker paper, but the deal was "way backloaded" with a high salary in the final season to inflate the average annual value.

Smith told reporters after returning to the Bears on Aug. 20 his trade request was denied and his "full focus" was on the regular season.

Prior to the Nov. 1 trade deadline, the Bears sent Smith to the Ravens for linebacker A.J. Klein and two 2023 draft picks, a second-rounder and a fifth-rounder.

Speaking to the media Nov. 1, Poles said he decided to move Smith because he felt it was "highly unlikely" the two sides would find common ground on a long-term extension.

The Bears drafted Smith with the eighth overall pick in the 2018 NFL draft. He made the All-Pro Second Team in 2020 and 2021.

Smith looks to have found a home with the Ravens. The 25-year-old has 36 combined tackles, four tackles for loss, two sacks and two pass breakups in five games since the trade.

Baltimore has won four of five games and the defense is allowing 13.4 points per game since Smith arrived.

Voting for the 2023 NFL Pro Bowl closes Thursday, and Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson are currently the top two vote-getters.

Tagovailoa has received 182,118 votes and Jefferson has received 177,163 votes, per NFL Network's Tom Pelissero. Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (172,400), Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce (170,034) and Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill (168,503) round out the top five.

Here's a deeper look at the AFC and NFC leading vote-getters:

The format of the 2023 Pro Bowl, which will be held at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, has been changed from a true football contest to a skills competition as well as a non-contact flag football game. Any player voted to the Pro Bowl is required to participate, barring injury.

With Pro Bowl games of the past lacking intensity, mainly because players didn't want to get hurt, a change to the format was very much needed to make the event more exciting.

The current top vote-getter, Tagovailoa, would be appearing in his first Pro Bowl since being selected fifth overall in the 2020 draft out of Alabama. He has had an impressive season despite missing Weeks 5 and 6 with a concussion.

The 24-year-old has completed 65.5 percent of his passes for 3,004 yards and 22 touchdowns against five interceptions. It has been his best season in the league, and the Dolphins are second in the AFC East with an 8-5 record.

Hill has also contributed to Miami's success in his first season with the team. The 28-year-old has caught 100 passes for 1,460 yards and six touchdowns in 13 games. His receiving yards ranks second in the NFL.

Hill was selected to the Pro Bowl in each of his first six NFL seasons that were spent with the Chiefs.

Jefferson has been selected to the Pro Bowl in each of his first two seasons. The 2020 first-round pick is on pace to surpass the 1,616 yards he posted during the 2021 campaign.

The LSU product has caught 99 passes for a league-best 1,500 yards and six touchdowns in 13 games. Jefferson has played a significant role in Minnesota's success this year, and the Vikings are first in the NFC North with a 10-3 record. The Vikings haven't finished first in their division since the 2017 season.

Finally, the Chiefs duo of Mahomes and Kelce has Kansas City once again sitting atop the AFC West with a 10-3 record, and they are arguably the best quarterback-pass catcher duo in the NFL.

Mahomes has earned a Pro Bowl selection in each season since he became Kansas City's full-time starter in 2018. This season, he has completed 65.8 percent of his passes for 4,160 yards and 33 touchdowns against 11 interceptions in 13 games in addition to rushing for 280 yards and two scores.

The 27-year-old's 4,160 passing yards and 33 touchdowns leads the NFL.

Kelce has earned seven straight Pro Bowl selections since 2015. In 13 games this season, he has caught 81 passes for 1,039 yards and 12 touchdowns. He is tied for the league lead in touchdowns with Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver Davante Adams.

During an appearance on the Pat McAfee Show this week, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers gave some more insight into how the use of ayahuasca has helped him.

When asked by former Packers teammate A.J. Hawk if he feared death, Rodgers admitted that he used to until ayahuasca aided in him getting over that fear:

Rodgers said that being a teenager during the Y2K hysteria of 1999 and 2000 contributed to his fear of dying due to the belief that he would never be able to accomplish all of his goals if he died young.

He continued by saying that consuming the psychoactive drink ayahuasca and the psychedelic drug psilocybin changed his perspective and "relieved a lot of the stress" associated with the need to accomplish things before death.

Rodgers also said he has "seen the other side" through the use of ayahuasca, which has caused him to view death as more of a "next chapter" than an ending.

Prior to the start of the 2022 NFL season, Rodgers revealed that he first used ayahuasca in 2020, which preceded back-to-back NFL MVP campaigns for the future Hall of Famer.

This season has been a much bigger struggle for Rodgers and the Packers, though, as they are 5-8 and have struggled to find consistency on offense compared to previous years.

Much of that likely has to do with the departure of Rodgers' No. 1 target, wide receiver Davante Adams, who was traded to the Las Vegas Raiders during the offseason.

Rodgers and the Packers are coming off a win over the Chicago Bears, though, and given how weak the NFC is, their playoff hopes are still alive.

The Minnesota Vikings have been in second place in the NFC for nearly the entire season, but there are still questions as to whether the team is truly a Super Bowl contender this year.

Those questions only grew louder Sunday after Minnesota's 34-23 loss to the Detroit Lions. The Vikings fell to 10-3 but maintain a firm grip on the NFC North, as the second-place Lions improved to 6-7.

Minnesota wasted a strong performance from quarterback Kirk Cousins, who threw for 425 yards and two touchdowns with no turnovers. Star wide receiver Justin Jefferson recorded 11 catches for 223 yards.

However, the Vikings defense allowed over 400 yards for a franchise-record fifth straight game. That clearly isn't a winning formula, especially when the playoffs begin.

NFL Twitter ripped Minnesota for its disappointing loss Sunday, with many calling out the team as fraudulent contenders:

The Vikings were once the hottest team in the league with a seven-game win streak. However, cracks have started to show over the last few weeks, as Minnesota is 2-2 in its last four games.

As the playoffs approach, the Vikings are surely hoping to find some quick fixes to their recent problems. Minnesota will look for a better effort when it returns to action Saturday against the Indianapolis Colts (4-8-1).