NFC North Daily: Hot Breakfast Links for July 26th 2012

Day One of Training Camp is in the books for the NFC North with the Packers and Bears kicking things off yesterday, and it wasn't boring. 

The Packers releasing Charlie Peprah was a bit of a surprise (you can check out my take on the repercussions here) but so far Packer fans are taking it in stride.

One thing about the Packers' faithful—they always assume Ted Thompson and Mike McCarthy have a plan.With good reason I might add.

With that out of the way, let's take a look at news from around the division.

MINNESOTA VIKINGS

We start off with the Star Tribune's Dan Wiederer as he takes a look at Christian Ponder and the challenges he faces coming into his second year.

Without a doubt, Ponder is one of the biggest keys to a successful season by any measuring stick you apply. He's got an offense more tailored to his strengths, but also with a ton of question marks—Jerome Simpson, John Carlson, Matt Kalil, the rookies Greg Childs and Jarius Wright.

There's a lot of work to do. It starts today.

One of the things it seems Ponder has to do is rebuild his confidence a bit, as Jeremy Fowler says in the Pioneer Press.

That's going to happen in the first year for a quarterback. Every one of them has the "aw crap I'm over my head" moments. The key will be to drive past it and move on rather than dwell on it.

The road to the Super Bowl is littered with quarterbacks who broke.

If you want to know what we think here at Bleacher Report, I've got you covered. A few weeks back I joined Huge Upside lead writer Matt Miller, The Go Route's Josh Zerkle and Aaron Naglerto to talk some NFC North football.

Today we posted our take on the Vikings.

Enjoy.

CHICAGO BEARS

ESPN Chicago's Micheal C. Wright tells us that Devin Hester's plan for this season is to catch the ball and then run.

I guess it's not that simple—as Wright explains, it's about getting one on one matchups where he can make a move after he catches the ball. This still hinges on catching the ball though, right? And Hester's routes are still not great and his concentration wavers. Telling this guy he has to accelerate after a catch is all well and good.

I want to see him do it when Clay Matthews or Louis Delmas comes across the middle and clears him out. I want to see him wait for the ball and THEN run, not run as he catches the ball.

Meanwhile, the Sun-Times' Mark Potash says if Gabe Carimi comes back effectively from his 2011 injury, he could become an All Pro very quickly. I was just writing about this yesterday—both myself and Matt Miller are very high on Carimi and have been since he entered the draft. He needs to stay healthy and on point—if he can, I could even see him at left tackle by the end of 2012.

DETROIT LIONS

Over at MLive.com, Anwar Richardson starts to dive into a series tackling five question marks the Lions face heading into camp today. His first one is an obvious one and something which is likely to come up after Johnny Culbreath and Aaron Berry have been cut: can they overcome distractions?

I know Lions fans are sick of it, the team is sick of it, but it's going to come up until they make the playoffs, and if they don't—maybe even if they do and lose the Super Bowl—it will again.

Meanwhile, Dave Birkett of the Free Press Tweeted these two gems from Jim Schwartz's press conference:

"

Schwartz said Best "could be" cleared today. "There's a lot of different things ... There's not just one point of contact w/his."

Schwartz said Best "could be" cleared today. "There's a lot of different things ... There's not just one point of contact w/his."

"

I'm sorry but this still concerns me. A year removed from the concussions (or near enough) and we're still unsure? Hopefully I get proven wrong today.

GREEN BAY PACKERS

Anything happen here yesterday? Like, any surprise cuts?

Other than Peprah, things were quiet in Cheeseland.

Today, Rob Demovsky of the Press-Gazette noted on Twitter that Sam Shields is not the nickel corner to start camp, which is normally his spot.

He's going to have to earn it back.

With the issues in 2011, everyone in the secondary is on notice, as they should be. 

A litany of Packers failed their physicals and ended up on the PUP list according to B/R and CheeseheadTV's Zach Kruse.

The list, from Kruse, is as follows:

TE Andrew Quarless, T Derek Sherrod, FB John Kuhn, LB Frank Zombo, G Jaymes Brooks, LB Desmond Bishop and NT Johnny Jones.

Zach has some details in the article and some musings on the surprising Bishop and Zombo fails.

Like these stories? Follow the linked writers on Twitter!

@zachkruse2 @freeplions @StribDW @MichaelCWright @VikingsNow @MARKPOTASH @AnwarRichardson  @RobDemovsky @nfldraftscout @punte @aaron_nagler

Check out the B/R NFC North Facebook page—like us and keep up with everything NFC North on Bleacher Report! Follow me on Twitter at @andrew_garda.