NFC North Mailbag: Letters from the Frozen North—June 1st

Welcome to the latest edition of Letters from the Frozen North.

Today I took a little different tactic than normal when reaching out to the fans on Twitter for some reactions to this week's stories.

We'll be doing this in concert with Q&As from here on out as I like to give you guys a chance to comment.

I like to think of it as poking a Bear (or Packer or Lion or Viking) with a stick.

Only the Vikings must have been too tired and worn out from sloshing grog or stabbing villagers or whatever they do.

Plenty of Packers, Bears and Lions fans though!

I rant so much about Hester, it occurred to me, maybe you guys love him in the second slot. I didn't THINK so, but you never know.

Plus, with reports coming out of camp that he looks good, well, maybe some people were buying him.

Not so much.

I mentioned late last night that I really like the idea of a Chicago Super Bowl. I'm not alone, but one thing that was pointed out to me on Twitter was taxes—

—and it does seem like taxes might get hiked up for something like this to "improve" the stadium. I like the stadium (despite it's UFO shape) in part because so much of the exterior was kept.

But it's not for everyone, and not having been to a game there, I can't speak to how good it is.

I do think the benefits (tourist dollars/overall incoming money) would outweigh the negatives, but as we saw with the Vikings' stadium battle, that isn't a point of view shared by all.

My third question was sure to raise some hackles—and quite frankly, rightfully so.

Of course Newton regressed—he got tired as most rookies do, and teams started stymieing him with different schemes.

I thought he had a phenomenal season, but let's be honest here—he had one good season.

Mind you, one could argue the same about Stafford.

This next response gets to the heart of the dilemma.

The fact is, they are two very different, very young quarterbacks. I happen to love Cam Newton. I also think Matt Stafford is outstanding.

They both are at the start of—if health holds—very productive and exciting careers.

But Stafford will never be as athletic as Newton. And Newton won't quite have Stafford's arm.

Both are excellent leaders, and boy has Newton shocked some people with his work ethic.

I don't agree with Newton being ranked over Stafford, but if we're being honest, Stafford was only healthy for one year. He looked good prior to that, but never stayed healthy.

So I could see someone being enamored of Newton's upside.

Even if I think there's a bit of "what-have-you-done-for-me-lately" involved in either one.

I saved the last for the fanbase that responded first, ah Packer fans. They don't sleep—they wait.

Of course, I agree with the first sentiment. As I told Aaron Nagler in a video this week, I believe that even though this is a team without many off-field or control issues, having a guy like Driver around benefits the young guys.

I do see Matt Stein's point that, hey it's not going to help the young guys if Driver gets their reps.

In my opinion, he really won't. I believe that Driver will not be a huge focus of the offense. He only had 59 targets in 2011—fourth among wide receivers and fifth on the team.

Randall Cobb will definitely see more targets this year as they integrate him more and more into the offense.

Driver will be a huge help in getting Cobb to the place in which he will eventually reside—as the new Donald Driver.

Thanks to everyone for commenting this week both on Twitter and on the articles.

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