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In this ESPN Insider piece, Matt Bowen identifies two NFC North players among five projections of second-yearmen destined for breakout years. You'll need an Insider subscription to read the entire post, but I can sneak you the gist of it below. Just don't tell anyone else.

Chicago Bears receiver Alshon Jeffery
Bowen snippet: "As a rookie, the wideout struggled at times to create separation at the top of the route stem (break point) versus tight coverage. But when I saw Jeffery this spring in the Bears' veteran minicamp here in Chicago, he looked much more polished when sinking his hips and working back to the football."
Seifert comment: Jeffery will get every opportunity to break out this season given the Bears' current depth at the position. They really only have two other established receivers alongside him in Brandon Marshall and Earl Bennett. Tight end Martellus Bennett and running back Matt Forte should get plenty of looks as well.

Minnesota Vikings safety Harrison Smith
Bowen snippet: "Smith has the range, understands angles to the football and can play down in the run front (Cover 1, Cover 3) or off the top of the numbers (Cover 2 landmark) in the Vikings' two-deep shell."
Seifert comment: That's a more specific way of saying that Smith is versatile enough, and has diverse-enough skills, to play in most any way an NFL team would ask a safety to. The Vikings play plenty of Cover 2, which usually pushes it safeties deep. But Smith is a playmaker whose potential for growth remains high.

» NFC Eight in the Box: East | West | North | South » AFC: East | West | North | South

How does each NFC North team look at running back, and what still needs to be done?

Chicago Bears: If you were drawing up plans for an experienced but diverse backfield, you could do a lot worse than modeling after the Bears. Starter Matt Forte is a shifty off-tackle runner and one of the NFL's top pass-catching running backs, a collection of skills that will fit neatly into new coach Marc Trestman's offense. Forte has caught 267 passes since his career started in 2008, the third-most in the NFL by a running back over that stretch. Backup Michael Bush, meanwhile, is a bigger and stronger inside threat who gives the Bears a better option in short-yardage and goal-line situations. He produced a first down on 24.6 percent of his rushes last season, according to ESPN Stats & Information, the 10th-best percentage in the NFL. As long as Forte and Bush are healthy, the Bears' relatively thin depth behind them is irrelevant.

Detroit Lions: Free-agent acquisition Reggie Bush figures to benefit from opponents' attention on receiver Calvin Johnson to much greater extent than the Lions' backfield did last season. Early indications are the Lions will use Bush similarly to the way the New Orleans Saints did earlier in his career. With the Saints in 2006, Bush caught 88 passes. Training camp should bring competition for the right to be the "thumper" behind Bush. Will it be 2011 second-round draft choice Mikel Leshoure, who looked slow and not very elusive after returning last season from a torn Achilles tendon? (No NFL running back had as many touches as Leshoure without at least one play of at least 20 yards.) Or will it be the lesser-known Joique Bell, who as Pro Football Focus points out, made defenders miss regularly last season. He forced 26 missed tackles in 82 carries and actually averaged more yards after contact (2.99) than Bush did with the Miami Dolphins (2.06).

Green Bay Packers: The team re-made its backfield through the draft after years of transition, throwing the situation into unknown territory. At some point, the Packers will have to thin the herd of a group that includes returnees DuJuan Harris, James Starks, Alex Green and John Kuhn, along with rookies Eddie Lacy and Johnathan Franklin. The competition is wide open, although both Starks and Green have failed when given previous opportunities. Lacy's build and pedigree suggests he has an excellent chance to ultimately win the starting job, but Harris impressed the team late last season and could get the first shot this summer.

Minnesota Vikings: Adrian Peterson. Is there much more to say? Historically, runners who put together a 2,000-yard season tend to fall back the following year. But nothing about Peterson's career suggests he will fit neatly into a trend. He has set a goal of 2,500 yards, and however unrealistic it might be, he has earned the benefit of the doubt. Backup Toby Gerhart is in his fourth and presumably last season as Peterson's understudy. While Gerhart hasn't shown much explosion in short stints in Peterson's place, you would think he'll want to look elsewhere for more carries when his contract expires after this season.

We're Black and Blue All Over:

Thursday, we broached the topic of whether the Chicago Bears would retire the number of middle linebacker Brian Urlacher. As it turns out, the team is dealing with a backlog on that issue.

Almost a half-century after playing his final game with the team, Mike Ditka will have his No. 89 retired this season, according to Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune. (The Bears have since confirmed the report.) As Biggs explains, Ditka has had his ups and downs with the franchise after both his playing career and coaching tenure the latter of which brought the Bears a Super Bowl championship in 1985.

It's the first such gesture by the Bears since 1994.

Modern-day fans might remember Ditka as a coach, but I wonder how many know that he was the No. 5 overall pick of the 1961 draft and went to five Pro Bowls in his first six seasons. He was a two-time All-Pro, still ranks first on the Bears' all-time receiving list for tight ends and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1988.

Congratulations to Da Coach, who is now an ESPN analyst.

Let's continue our morning tour around the NFC North:

• Former Bears coach Lovie Smith on Urlacher, via ESPNChicago.com: "[H]is physical play is just a small part of what made Brian great. People knew he called our defense, but his intelligence was never given its just due. His understanding of the game is among the best who has ever played it."
• Former NFL quarterback Rich Gannon on playing for Bears coach Marc Trestman, via Adam L. Jahns of the Chicago Sun-Times: "The big thing for Jay Cutler is just realizing that you have an unbelievable opportunity here to work with a guy who has really had success with quarterbacks. You have to ask yourself, 'Why has he had this success?'"
• Detroit Lions cornerback Chris Greenwood, who missed his rookie year because of an injury, is ready for his second chance. More from Anwar S. Richardson of Mlive.com.
• Lions special-teams ace Ashlee Palmer is hoping for an expanded role on defense this season, writes Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press.
• Technique development is the first step for Detroit Lions defensive end Ziggy Ansah, according to Justin Rogers of Mlive.com.
• Former Green Bay Packers president Bob Harlan has plenty to keep him busy in retirement, writes Lori Nickel of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
• Pete Dougherty of the Green Bay Press-Gazette: "Nick Perry’s rookie season wasn’t a total injury washout, but the Green Bay Packers still can’t say he’s successfully made the transition from a college defensive end to a 3-4 outside linebacker in the NFL."
• Vikings defensive end Jared Allen knows that 2013 could be his final year with the team. Allen, via Dan Wiederer of the Star Tribune: "I pray about it. I talk to my wife. And we'll end up going where the good Lord takes us. But I don’t know where that path is headed."
• Ben Goessling of the St. Paul Pioneer Press has an interesting profile of new Vikings punter Jeff Locke, who is an intellect in his own right.

To this point of the offseason, the Minnesota Vikings have elected to carry untouched the largest salary-cap hit for a non-quarterback in the NFL. Despite his cap charge of $17.063 million, defensive end Jared Allen told the Star Tribune recently that "we haven't talked one iota" about a contract extension that would lower that figure.

So what does that mean about Allen's future with the team? Based on what is known at the moment, it's not outlandish to suggest that the Vikings plan to part ways with Allen when his contract expires after the 2013 season.

Of course, the team could always initiate discussions later this summer or even during the season. Otherwise, the only explanation for not lowering Allen's cap number via an extension now is that they don't want to commit to future years with him.

We've noted several times how serious general manager Rick Spielman has been about maintaining a youthful roster. Allen turned 31 in April. He is only one year removed from a 22-sack season, but his sack total dropped to 12 in 2012 as he played with a torn labrum in his shoulder.

Since taking over as general manager in January 2012, Spielman has bid farewell to more than a half-dozen longtime veterans, including guard Steve Hutchinson, linebacker E.J. Henderson, cornerback Antoine Winfield, tight end Visanthe Shiancoe, place-kicker Ryan Longwell and punter Chris Kluwe. As of today, Allen is one of four players on the Vikings' 90-man roster who are older than 30.

Allen remains one of the NFL's most feared pass-rushers, and as we sit here today, it's hard to project he will be anywhere close to a steep decline after the 2013 season. But if given the choice, it sure appears that Spielman prefers to err on the side of parting ways too early than too late. If nothing else, he has protected that option with Allen to this point by choosing the cap number over an extension.

Only five players in the NFL have higher 2013 cap figures than Allen, and all of them are quarterbacks. The Vikings are managing at the moment because they have a quarterback (Christian Ponder) playing under the terms of a rookie contract. If you told me the Vikings' working plan is to get everything they can from Allen in 2013 and then move on, I wouldn't be stunned. I'm sure they haven't made a final decision, but I think we can say that the most obvious one remains very much in play.

We're Black and Blue All Over:

Now that we've dissected Brian Urlacher's retirement and assessed his chances at enshrinement in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, we should ask the next question: Will the Bears retire his No. 54?

That issue might be more complicated than the Hall of Fame. It would seem a natural next step, but the Bears already have 13 numbers retired in a sport where 90 players are taken to training camp and 53 make the final roster. It's worth noting that the Bears never retired the No. 50 of Hall of Fame middle linebacker Mike Singletary and actually put it back into circulation this spring when they signed free-agent linebacker James Anderson.

I appreciate all of you bearing with us Wednesday after Urlacher's announcement. We will now return to regularly scheduled May football coverage, starting with our morning tour around the division after a crazy-busy day:

• Michael Wilbon of ESPNChicago.com thinks the Bears will be able to replace Urlacher even though they should have signed him for one more season: "If [Dick] Butkus can beget Singletary and he can beget Urlacher, presumptuous as it seems to say, the next great Chicago linebacker is out there, somewhere, waiting for the privilege to be accepted into the rarest of football fraternities."
• David Haugh of the Chicago Tribune: "For a guy who came from tiny Lovington, N.M., Urlacher ideally fit an image immediately embraced by our big, blue-collar town. The face of the Bears franchise should feature a square jaw. Urlacher looked like a meat packer and worked as if he signed a time card instead of autographs. From his first day as a Bear to his last, Urlacher never considered himself special, which perhaps was why he became that way. No athlete since Michael Jordan symbolized Chicago more than Urlacher."
• Urlacher maintained the Bears' tradition of middle linebackers, writes Rick Telander of the Chicago Sun-Times.
• Detroit Lions receiver Nate Burleson has resumed practicing, two months ahead of schedule, after recovering from a broken leg. Chris McCosky of the Detroit News has more.
• The Lions need Ndamukong Sun and Nick Fairley to step up as leaders, writes John Niyo of the News.
• The Lions' development of defensive end Willie Young and offensive lineman Jason Fox will be telling, writes Drew Sharp of the Detroit Free Press.
• Lions tight end Brandon Pettigrew, via Anwar S. Richardson of Mlive.com: "I definitely took a step back last year. Kind of dinged up a little bit. Being in there, you're still expected to make the plays. Personally, I think I took a step back last year. It's time to get back to it, to what we had built a year before, just being a better player."
• In case you missed it, Lions safety Louis Delmas isn't participating in organized team activities.
• Packers defensive lineman Johnny Jolly has completed a court-ordered drug treatment program and is now free to begin working out with the team, according to Chris Roth of WBAY-Ch. 2.
• Packers cornerback Tramon Williams has stepped up as the leader of the team's secondary, writes Tyler Dunne of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
• Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers told the Jim Rome radio show that he hopes the team retires Brett Favre's No. 4 before he goes into the Hall of Fame. Weston Hodkiewicz of the Green Bay Press-Gazette has the quotes.
• Minnesota Vikings defensive end Jared Allen said there has been no discussions about a contract extension, according to Dan Wiederer of the Star Tribune. Allen is entering the final year of his deal.
• The Vikings won't have Urlacher as their middle linebacker this season, notes Ben Goessling of the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

It never seemed likely that the Minnesota Vikings would pursue Brian Urlacher in free agency, given their sharp turn toward youth over the past two years. And now it seems clear that Urlacher had little interest in a mercenary-style role with the Vikings or any other NFL team.

On the day he announced his retirement, Urlacher told ESPN 1000 that he could never get his mind around playing for another team and was especially averse to answering a midsummer emergency call. The Vikings are giving veteran Erin Henderson a spring look at the position, and the thought had been that only a season-ending injury or a complete flop would have prompted the Vikings to call Urlacher.

"I didn't want to put another jersey on for any other team," Urlacher said. "Obviously it wasn't going to be for the Bears this year, so I thought it was the right thing to do to shut it down. …

"We talked to every team in the NFL, and maybe in July or August it would have happened, but I'm not going to wait. I want to be somewhere where somebody wants me. I don't want to go somewhere where, 'Oh, so-and-so got hurt, we need you.' I don't want that to be the situation.

"The Bears offered me the contract they offered me, and that was probably the best contract I was going to get from anywhere. And I'm not going to put my body through what it goes through for what the offer was."

And for those of you wondering if Urlacher could be lured from retirement, he insisted he plans to file his retirement papers immediately and has no interest in a comeback.

You can listen to ESPN 1000's entire 20-minute interview here.

As rosters shake out this summer, you'll hear a fair amount about the "youngest" and "oldest" teams in the NFL. Sometimes those figures and rankings can be skewed by aged kickers or an exceptionally youthful set of reserves, so I like what colleague Mike Sando compiled this week over on the NFC West blog.

Sando has a comprehensive chart ranking teams by the average age of their projected starters, ostensibly the most important 22 players on the roster. (Specialists weren't included, mostly because age isn't as relevant for them.) Naturally, there are some best guesses involved when you're looking at a starting lineup in May, but most teams have provided enough clues either through minicamps or organized team activities (OTAs) to make a reasonable projection.

As it turns out, the Chicago Bears have the NFL's oldest set of starters when viewed in this way. As it stands now, their starting defense includes four players who are at least 30 and two more who are 29. That figure could change if either (or both) of their two rookie linebackers, Jon Bostic (22) and Khaseem Greene (22) win a starting job. But for now, the Bears' starting linebackers are Lance Briggs (32), D.J. Williams (30) and James Anderson (29). They are set to play alongside defensive end Julius Peppers (33), cornerback Charles Tillman (32) and cornerback Tim Jennings (29).

The Detroit Lions rank No. 16 overall largely because their offensive starters are the NFL's sixth-oldest, headed by center Dominic Raiola (34), receiver Nate Burleson (31) and tight end Tony Scheffler (30). For the purposes of this projection, Corey Hilliard (28) is considered the right tackle over Jason Fox (25).

Meanwhile, starters from the Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers rank among the NFL's nine youngest.

Making a value judgment here is much harder than compiling the figures. Younger isn't necessarily better, especially at key positions, unless it represents a longer-term fixture at the position. And in some cases, age represents the staying power of an elite player. For 2013, at least, I'm sure the Bears would prefer Briggs over, say, the Lions' DeAndre Levy (26) or the Packers' Nick Perry (23).

NFL team-building can be cyclical, however. What we can say, I think, is that teams with older starters have more urgency to identify and develop their next generation of players. Presumably, those with younger starters have already begun that process.

Related: The Packers and Vikings lead the division, respectively, with draft picks remaining on their roster.

We're Black and Blue All Over:

The Green Bay Packers lost a promising rookie -- perhaps for the season -- on the first day of their organized team activities (OTAs), according to multiple reports. Offensive lineman J.C. Tretter, a fourth-round draft pick who was being trained at multiple positions, broke his ankle and tore ligaments during Monday's opening OTA. His agent believes he will miss six months.

Monday's practice was closed to the media but reporters noted that Tretter was not in attendance Tuesday. Packers coach Mike McCarthy did not comment on the nature of the injury, but agent Alan Herman told Jason Wilde of ESPNMilwaukee.com and Tyler Dunne of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the injury occurred when his foot got stuck in the turf while sliding during a fumble recovery drill.

Tretter didn't figure as starter or even a key backup in 2013, but if nothing else the Packers will lose valuable development time with a long-term prospect. It's also an auspicious start to spring practices a few months after McCarthy said the team was working to explain why it has been beset by so many injuries in recent years. You figure Tretter will open training camp on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list and it's possible he will miss the entire season.

Continuing around the NFC North:

• Packers cornerback Sam Shields skipped Tuesday's OTA, notes Dunne for the Journal Sentinel. Shields is a restricted free agent who hasn't signed his tender yet.
• Former Packers defensive back Charles Woodson returned to the Oakland Raiders, the team he played for before signing with the Packers in 2005.
• Weston Hodkiewicz of the Green Bay Press-Gazette reviews the changes in the Packers' offensive line.
• Chicago Bears running back Matt Forte and cornerback Tim Jennings are part of the USO Illinois Pro Tour, currently visiting injured soldiers in Germany, notes Jeff Dickerson of ESPNChicago.com. As a result, they did not participate in Tuesday's OTA.
• Bears linebacker Lance Briggs said he has become more vocal following the departure of middle linebacker Brian Urlacher. Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune has more.
• Monday's tornado in Oklahoma hit home for Bears rookie punter Tress Way, who is participating in OTAs. More from Dickerson for ESPNChicago.com.
• Bears place-kicker Robbie Gould has been cleared to resume kicking and should be on the practice field Thursday, according to Dickerson for ESPNChicago.com.
• Detroit Lions receiver Calvin Johnson is getting used to a new position coach, writes Justin Rogers of Mlive.com.
• Terry Foster of the Detroit News on Lions rookie defensive end Devin Taylor: "He wants to be a monster during the play and low key when it is over. Do not stereotype Taylor as the typical loudmouth SEC player from South Carolina. He is not."
• The Lions and Ford Field are trying to host their own college bowl game, notes the Detroit Free Press.
• The Minnesota Vikings waived tackle Mark Jackson, notes Tom Pelissero of 1500ESPN.com.
• Three firms are bidding for the contract to build the parking and skyway infrastructure around the Vikings' new stadium. More from Richard Meryhew of the Star Tribune.

As you might have noticed, ESPN and ESPN.com will begin counting down the top 20 coaches in NFL history later this week. Trey Wingo provides the basic parameters in the video, and from an NFC North perspective, this list is going to boil down to where a pair of historic figures show up: The Green Bay Packers' Vince Lombardi and the Chicago Bears' George Halas.

Two ballots have already been revealed. ESPN's Rick Reilly put Lombardi at No. 1 and Halas at No. 5. But in an Insider post , former NFL coach Herm Edwards puts Halas at No. 1 and Lombardi at No. 2.

Edwards noted that Halas coached for 40 seasons and added: "All he did was win six NFL titles and compile a record of 324-151-31 (.682), while sustaining a competitive team over his entire coaching career. Perhaps his most impressive statistic is that his teams were under .500 in only six of his 40 seasons."

I'll bring your attention to any ranking that involves an NFC North-related coach over the next few weeks.

When the Detroit Lions hired Jim Schwartz as their coach in 2009, hope emerged from the sports analytics industry. Had it gained a patron saint? Schwartz, after all, had acknowledged his interest in the subject during his time as the Tennessee Titans' defensive coordinator, and some girded for the kind of nontraditional, out-of-the-box thinking it might lead to.

There was an obvious test case. Ever since David Romer's groundbreaking 2006 paper, advanced analysts have encouraged NFL coaches to be more aggressive on fourth down. Research showed that the cost of failing was not as severe as conventional wisdom might suggest, especially when compared to the benefits and likelihood of success.

If anything, however, Schwartz has fallen on the conservative side of his already-cautious NFL brethren, providing us an NFC North illustration of the larger trend. Despite objective research and data, coaches still have relatively little stomach for eschewing field goals and punts in favor of the possibility for a touchdown or continuing a drive.

Our friends at Football Outsiders recently published a ranking of the Aggressiveness Index for every 2012 coach, measuring how often he went for it on fourth down relative to the league average. The study includes fakes but eliminates obvious catch-up situations as well as plays in the final 10 seconds of a half.

As you can see in the chart below, the NFC North's most aggressive coach last season was the Green Bay Packers' Mike McCarthy, who went for it 11 times in 108 qualifying opportunities. Close observers of the Packers' season, of course, would recognize that at least a few of those occasions were partially related to place-kicker Mason Crosby's midseason slump.

Minnesota Vikings coach Leslie Frazier went for it four times in 104 opportunities, while Schwartz did so on only two of 98, the second-lowest total in the NFL.

Why am I circling back on this topic now? As NFC West colleague Mike Sando and I discussed during an Inside Slant podcast last November, the NFL arrival of former Oregon coach Chip Kelly could shake up current thinking on fourth downs in the way that Schwartz's mere interest in the general topic of advanced analysis did not.

Kelly's aggressiveness on fourth down at Oregon wasn't necessarily an outlier in the college game but would surely stand out in his new role with the Philadelphia Eagles. (As the Philadelphia Daily News noted, Oregon converted 20 of 31 fourth-down attempts last season, double what most NFL teams tried.)

Kelly has downplayed his potential to carry over those trends to the NFL, telling the Daily News that there is a "fallacy and reality" to what he did. His place-kicker's leg strength played a role in decisions, Kelly said, and rarely did he go for it on his side of the field -- a riskier proposition to be sure.

Regardless, here's hoping that Kelly provides a spark that will spread in a copycat league. Fourth downs are the kind of dramatic and intensely strategic plays that can add another layer of intrigue to a game and spur an entire week of conversation and debate.

Consider one of the simplest examples from the original paper Romer wrote as an economics professor at Cal-Berkley.

It's fourth down and goal at the 2-yard line early in a game, a scenario that provides a near-automatic field goal. According to Romer's research, going for it in that situation historically led to a touchdown 43 percent of the time.

Most coaches look at those odds and choose the 100 percent chance of three points rather than about a 50-50 chance of seven. The analyst would say the expected payoff is about the same.

Why? If you fall short of the touchdown, the opponent takes over inside the 3-yard line. Historically, you're still in pretty good position to get the ball back close to scoring position.

My guess is it will take a long time to drag even the most free-thinking coaches into a more aggressive fourth-down approach. The bottom line is that it's scary to give up a near-certain chance for points at a given moment. But that doesn't mean we can't hope. This season, I'll do my best to track our coaches' decisions in such situations and compare them to the risks presented by historical research. We'll see where it goes.

I'm willing to chat on May 21 if you are. I'm sure we'll find plenty to talk about as organized team activities continue around the NFC North. See you over at SportsNation at 2 p.m. ET.

We're Black and Blue All Over:

Why is the NFL considering a reorganization of its offseason schedule, as reported by ESPN's Adam Schefter? Naturally, to avoid the kind of quiet period that leaves players, teams and media members fighting over whether someone has broken fingers or simply injured ones.

That about sums up the silly fracas that erupted Monday after Detroit Lions receiver Calvin Johnson seemed to confirm that he played much of last season with broken fingers on his left hand. (He replied, "I had a couple injuries to them, yeah," according to Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press.) The Lions' website initially reported his comments as confirmation but later updated its story to say: "While Johnson did admit to suffering finger injuries, he did not specifically state that he did suffer a break."

The basic point we made Monday should stand: Johnson set an NFL record for receiving yards in a season with significant injuries to one of the most important body parts on a wide receiver. Whether they were broken, mangled, bruised, cut or any injured in any other way, the revelation adds a layer to his historic season.

Why the fuss over the exact diagnosis? Time. Time. Too much time.

(That and perhaps concern about an injury report violation. Johnson was never listed with a broken finger last season, and this isn't the first time Johnson has seemed to describe an injury that the Lions never listed him with.)

Continuing around the NFC North:

• Johnson said he is praying for his former teammate Titus Young. Anwar S. Richardson of Mlive.com has more.
• Chicago Bears place-kicker Robbie Gould (calf) could be cleared to join organized team activities (OTAs) this week, according to Jeff Dickerson of ESPNChicago.com.
• Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune speaks with former NFL offensive lineman LeCharles Bentley, who is training Bears lineman Gabe Carimi this offseason. Carimi is working with Bentley rather than attend OTAs.
• The Bears terminated the contract of defensive lineman Andre Fluellen, notes Michael C. Wright of ESPNChicago.com.
• Rookie Green Bay Packers receiver Kevin Dorsey has a plan for success, writes Lori Nickel of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
• The Packers are looking for a viable return man to replace Randall Cobb, and Jeremy Ross is the first on the list, writes Weston Hodkiewicz of the Green Bay Press-Gazette.
• From the Associated Press, the Minnesota legislature is "temporarily rerouting money from a new cigarette tax and from a corporate tax to backfill a lagging stadium fund" for the Minnesota Vikings' new stadium.
• Charity leaders are beginning a promotional tour for the original source of revenues, e-pulltabs, so they can be used in future years. More from Jean Hopfensperger of the Star Tribune.

So, what did you do this weekend?

Minnesota Vikings defensive end Jared Allen hosted "Night-Ops IV," his fourth annual charity golf tournament to benefit his Homes for Wounded Warriors program. The event included nine holes of night-time golf and a 280-foot slip-and-slide competition.

If you thought Allen would be kept off said slip-and-slide a few months after offseason surgery to repair a torn labrum, well, you don't know Jared Allen.

In 2003, the NFL scheduled the Minnesota Vikings as the Green Bay Packers' first opponent in the renovated Lambeau Field. So naturally, the Vikings are expecting the league to return the favor 13 years later.

Nothing will be official for a while, but the Vikings' top stadium executive suggested to multiple media outlets over the weekend that the Packers likely will be the first regular-season opponent in the Vikings' new stadium, scheduled to open in time for the 2016 season.

Responding to a question about jabs from Packers fans on the stadium's design, Vikings vice president Lester Bagley told KARE-Ch. 11 that "we can't wait" to play the Packers there.

"The way the league is structured … our very first regular-season game will likely be against the Green Bay Packers," Bagley said. "So it will be good to see Adrian Peterson break loose and score the first touchdown in the new stadium and run over Clay Matthews on his way to the end zone. We'll see. Hopefully we'll have the last word when we get to opening day in [September] 2016."

(The answer starts around the 14:30 mark.)

The Vikings defeated the Packers 30-25 in that 2003 game, intercepting quarterback Brett Favre four times. Of course, the Packers gained the final word that season by clinching the NFC North in Week 17.

There are multiple variables that go into scheduling out a season, but the Packers will have to play at the new stadium at some point during the 2016 season. So the only real obstacles to the Week 1 matchup is if the NFL opts against it or a television network wants it for later in the season.

We're Black and Blue All Over:

We're down to five unsigned draft choices here in the NFC North after the Chicago Bears wrapped up contracts for their 2013 class over the weekend. First-round draft pick Kyle Long agreed to terms on a four-year deal, with a team option for a fifth, a move that gets 30 of this division's 35 draft picks under contract.

Those unsigned include four first-round picks and one second-rounder. They include the Minnesota Vikings' Sharrif Floyd, Xavier Rhodes and Cordarrelle Patterson; and the Green Bay Packers' Datone Jones and Eddie Lacy.

Unsigned draft choices are free to participate in offseason programs and in essence have until the start of training camp before their contracts become an issue.

Continuing around the NFC North:

• Bears fans should realize their team is in the same boat with backup quarterback Josh McCown as most of the NFL, writes Dan Pompei of the Chicago Tribune. Pompei: "As quarterback play has become more important, the notion of a backup superhero has become increasingly quaint. There are more desirable ones than McCown, certainly. But not many."
• Former Bears coach Mike Ditka checks in with the Chicago Sun-Times on Jay Cutler's football IQ and other issues.
• Detroit Lions linebacker Stephen Tulloch said that former Lions receiver Titus Young confided in him about mental illness. Tulloch would not specify Young's issues, according to Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press.
• The Lions' upcoming organized team activities should begin to answer the team's questions, writes Chris McCosky of the Detroit News.
• Free-agent defensive back Charles Woodson isn't opposed to playing for the Lions, notes Anwar S. Richardson of Mlive.com. The question is to what extent the Lions would have interest.
• Packers linebacker Desmond Bishop is pledging to be "110 percent" by the time training camp begins, according to Tyler Dunne of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Bishop is still recovering from a torn hamstring muscle suffered last summer.
• Packers Hall of Fame quarterback Bart Starr, via Jason Wilde of ESPNMilwaukee.com: "The greatest mistake I made in my life was to coach. It's a great lesson that could apply to any of us. Because I didn't plan to, I hadn't prepared to. And I didn't have the guts to say to the Green Bay Packers, 'Thank you, but no thank you. I'm not going to do it.' I wasn't prepared, and it showed over the first few years. I felt very, very badly about that."
• Mike Vandermause of the Green Bay Press-Gazette on rookie Packers running backs Lacy and Johnathan Franklin: "It’s entirely possible both will be used extensively this season and complement each other while giving Aaron Rodgers and his receivers some room to breathe."
• Vikings cornerback Chris Cook says he is ready to handle opponents' top receivers. Tom Pelissero of 1500ESPN.com has more.
• Vikings linebacker Erin Henderson was part of a journalism boot camp earlier this month, writes Mark Craig of the Star Tribune.
• Neighbors of the new Vikings stadium have mixed reviews, writes Richard Meryhew of the Star Tribune.