While the Vikings travel to New Orleans and the Bears prepare for a Monday night contest against the Jets, the Packers and Lions will square off in Detroit in what could be an important early-season battle between division rivals. At the moment, the NFC North is the league’s only division in which all four teams are 1-1, so the winner of that Green Bay/Detroit showdown will be guaranteed at least a tie for first place, and considering Minnesota and Chicago head into their respective games as underdogs, it’s possible that either the Packers or Lions could be sitting alone atop the division on Tuesday morning.
Here are a few Saturday notes from around the division:
- With Adrian Peterson seemingly on the outs for the Vikings, Charley Walters of the St. Paul Pioneer Press wonders if the club will use a high draft pick to land a running back in 2015. Walters also adds that, in his view, “it still looks like” Peterson will end up playing for the Cowboys in 2015. A report last month indicated that the veteran running back expressed some interest in eventually heading home to Texas to play for the Cowboys, though of course that was before he was indicted and placed on Minnesota’s exempt list.
- “Everyone with even minimal interest in the Packers understands [Ted] Thompson will live and die with his draft and develop philosophy,” writes Bob McGinn of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. In his piece, McGinn explores how the Green Bay general manager settled on that philosophy, and how it has worked out for the club.
- In his latest mailbag, Kyle Meinke of MLive.com fields Lions-related questions, addressing why Corey Fuller continues to be active over Ryan Broyles, among other topics.