http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writ...fc.north/1.html
NFC North training-camp preview
Vikes plan to run, Lions get tough, Bears unhappy
By Don Banks
Posted: Thursday July 13, 2006 12:14PM; Updated: Thursday July 13, 2006
12:45PM
Team on the rise
MINNESOTA
While Chicago, with its 22 returning starters and a defense full of Pro Bowl players, is the chalk pick to win the division, don't discount a Vikings team that managed to go 9-7 last season despite a boatload (wink, wink) of problems. New Vikings head coach Brad Childress has a talented roster to work with, and his disciplined nature should set just the right tone in Minnesota, where the inmates have been running the asylum for some time.
The most hopeful move the Vikings made in their busy offseason was hiring first-time defensive coordinator Mike Tomlin, who will install the tried-and-true Cover 2 scheme that has worked so well in Tampa Bay, Chicago and other NFL venues. If Childress' run-oriented version of the West Coast offense clicks, with lead running back Chester Taylor carrying the mail and quarterback Brad Johnson smoothly delivering the ball all over the field, the Vikings could be a dangerous entity in the NFC playoff race.
Team in transition
GREEN BAY
The Packers were painful to watch in 2005, burying themselves beneath an avalanche of mistakes, injuries and narrow defeats (eight by seven points or fewer). With head coach Mike Sherman banished, the untested Mike McCarthy has been given a shot to guide Green Bay through what will continue to be a difficult transition from playoff perennial.
McCarthy has the division's thinnest roster to work with, and the Brett Favre retirement saga continues to loom over everything in Packer-land. Green Bay gets to watch Favre play for at least one more year, but that won't be much of a treat if he repeats his humbling performance of last season, when his game disintegrated into a weekly display of trying to do too much (he had a career-worst 29 picks). The defense has been upgraded somewhat with cornerback Charles Woodson, defensive tackle Ryan Pickett and rookie linebacker A.J. Hawk, but there still won't be enough playmakers or points to go around.
Coach in the spotlight
ROD MARINELLI, DETROIT
With three new head coaches in the four-team division, we had options in this category. The most intriguing situation to follow will be in Motown, where Marinelli has vowed to take a tough-love approach that will stand in stark contrast to the laid-back atmosphere that cost ex-Lions head coach Steve Mariucci his job. When you throw in the Mike Martz factor -- the always-entertaining ex-Rams head coach is Detroit's new offensive coordinator -- the Lions, more than any other NFC North team, are counting on coaching being a difference-maker. It may take Marinelli a while to find the right combination of players who will sell out for his program, but just getting the Lions to play harder will register as improvement.
Impact player in the making
A.J. HAWK, GREEN BAY
The pre-draft scouting process these days specializes in making mountains of weaknesses out of relative molehills when it comes to early-round prospects, but very few discouraging words were heard regarding Hawk. With size, speed and a track record of production, the Ohio State linebacker is a playmaking machine (a ball Hawk?) who is expected to both start and make his presence felt from the moment the Packers buckle up their chin straps. He can play inside in a 3-4 scheme or outside in a 4-3 and won't ever leave the field due to down and distance. If there's a Shawne Merriman or Lofa Tatupu waiting to be discovered in this year's NFL rookie class, Hawk is the easy pick.
Story to watch unfold
It's funny, the twists and turns of an NFL career. In early 1999 the Vikings traded their former starting quarterback, Brad Johnson, away to Washington, drafted Daunte Culpepper in the first round, signed Jeff George and applauded themselves for having locked up the reborn Randall Cunningham. Seven years later Cunningham and George are retired, Culpepper is trying to rehabilitate his reputation and his knee in Miami and Johnson, ever the survivor, is back atop the Vikings' depth chart after going 7-2 as Culpepper's replacement in 2005. And it might surprise you to learn that Brett Favre isn't even the oldest starting QB in the division. Johnson, who will turn 38 in September, is 13 months older than the legendary one, and owns just as many Super Bowl rings (one). Even better? Of that veteran duo, Johnson is the one who has a chance to lead his team to the playoffs this year.
Biggest splash of the offseason
OK, we'll grant you that adding a guard is just about the least sexy move you can make in the offseason. But Minnesota upgrading its offensive line by landing Seattle All-Pro guard Steve Hutchinson was no ho-hummer. Hutchinson got $49 million for seven years from the Vikings -- a record at his position -- and then there was all that "poison pill'' business that the signing inspired, with the Vikings and the Seahawks going tit-for-tat in basically exchanging Hutchinson for receiver Nate Burleson. If new Minnesota running back Chester Taylor can produce behind left guard Hutchinson and left tackle Bryant McKinnie the way Shaun Alexander did in Seattle behind Hutchinson and Walter Jones, the Vikes will finally have themselves a running game with which to win.
Pay no attention to . . .
The Bears' "easiest schedule in the league'' advantage. True, Chicago's 2006 opponents were 114-142 last season, for a winning percentage of just .445, but that will be deceiving in retrospect. Chicago faces no picnic in the season's first four weeks, opening at Green Bay -- where the Bears historically struggle -- before going to Minnesota in Week 3 and facing defending NFC champ Seattle in Week 4. Then there's that killer three-game November road trip to the East Coast: Back-to-back games against the Giants and the Jets, capped by a journey to New England. Down the stretch Chicago faces all three of its division opponents in the final five games and draws a visit from Tampa Bay and a trip to St. Louis.
Potential land mine
The defense was the backbone of Chicago's return to the playoffs last season, and nobody's performance was more pleasantly surprising than cornerback Nathan Vasher, who made the Pro Bowl in his second season and turned in the play of the year with that 108-yard return of a missed 49ers field goal. But now Vasher has a contract beef, and you can't blame him. He's set to earn just $425,000 in the third season of his four-year rookie deal. According to Vasher's agent, Mike Sullivan, 130 cornerbacks (about four per team) are in line to make more in '06. When you factor in that both Bears linebacker Lance Briggs and running back Thomas Jones are also unhappy with their deals, there's a chance the discontent will carry over to the field.
NFC North training camp preview
Yeah, should be great but I don't think the Vikings-Bears game will be on TV 
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