NFC North Notes: Lions, Packers, Patricia

The Lions are expected to once again use a rotation at running back instead of committing to one starter, head coach Matt Patricia told reporters, including Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press. “I think for us it all about competition, but when we get into the gameplan mode and we actually have our team and we are working against a particular opponent, then it becomes into a matchup situation,” said Patricia, who is familiar with deploying a running back stable after working for the Patriots until this spring. Detroit signed veteran LeGarrette Blount to a one-year deal last month, adding him to a crop that also includes Ameer Abdullah, Theo Riddick, Zach Zenner, and Dwayne Washington, and Birkett reports the club is expected to select another running back in the upcoming draft.

Here’s more out of the NFC North:

• Packers wideout Trevor Davis was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport on Sunday after making a joke about carrying a bomb, according to a report from TMZ Sports. Davis was reportedly checking in when he facetiously asked his girlfriend if she remembered to “pack the explosives,” a question which unsurprisingly wasn’t met with laughter by airport staff. The 24-year-old Davis was subsequently arrested and charged with a misdemeanor of making a bomb threat, and is now facing a May 3 court date, per Tom Schad of USA Today. Davis, a fifth-round pick in the 2016 draft, will compete to earn a spot on the back end of Green Bay’s wide receiver depth chart.
• Although Lions general manager Bob Quinn kept former head coach Jim Caldwell in place from 2016-17, Quinn had been eyeing Patricia for some time, as Birkett writes in a separate piece. “I had heard about Matt from Bob for two years before we had the chance to meet and as I think I told him recently, I think he undersold him, and he was selling him,” team president Rod Wood said. “So I think the relationship is strong, the language they speak, the trust. The ability I think to build the team through kind of one long-term vision of what we’re going to be about…” Quinn and Patricia overlapped in New England from 2004-15, and both are now signed through 2022 in Detroit.
• In case you missed it, the Bears declined to match a two-year, $9.6MM offer sheet for wide receiver Cameron Meredith and thus lost him to the Saints. Because Chicago only tendered Meredith at the original round level, the club won’t receive any compensation as Meredith heads to New Orleans. The Bears had the option of tendering Meredith at the second-round level at a cost of $2.914MM, only ~$1MM more than the original round price of $1.907MM.