NFC North Daily: Hot Breakfast Links for August 1, 2012

Training camp marches onward, and every step gets us closer to the regular season.

Lots to talk about today: from a domino effect in the Packers secondary, to skeet shooting, to high expectations for the Vikings to key pieces of the Bears’ defense. And of course, continued discussion of Jahvid Best’s head.

All that and more in the Breakfast News Links—read them while they’re hot!

Green Bay Packers

The net effect of Charles Woodson playing more safety is that the guy who replaces him when he moves—whether for a play, a quarter or permanently—is even more critical.

Tyler Dunne of the Journal-Sentinel breaks down the battle for cornerback between Jarrett Bush, Davon House, Sam Shields and rookie Casey Hayward.

Meanwhile, over at CheeseheadTV.com, Zach Kruse fills you in on some post-practice comments from head coach Mike McCarthy. None involved skeet shooting.

Minnesota Vikings

Yesterday, Zygi Wilf, aka Zygi The Biggie (according to the Colts' Jim Isray), said he expects the Vikings to be division champs, despite a fairly awful 2011. Judd Zulgad of 1500ESPN.com feels that puts a ton of pressure on head coach Leslie Frazier.

I can’t quite disagree with that sentiment but then again they are rebuilding and that gives you some leeway as a coach as long as there is improvement and secondly, Wilf says there were no specific benchmarks for Frazier to hit.

I guess what I’m saying is, there’s always a lot of pressure.

On a lighter note, the Star Tribune’s Mark Craig spoke with some of the players about really horrible jobs they’d had before becoming NFL players.

An awful lot of them involved shoveling….well, you know. And I’m not just talking from a public relations standpoint.

Frazier spent a summer cleaning a graveyard. Jared Allen worked on his parent’s farm.

For them, training camp is easy.

Chicago Bears

Over at ESPNChicago, Jeff Dickerson spoke with cornerback Kelvin Hayden about how he’s trying to overcome the durability issues that have plagued him over the last three years.

Dickerson also took a closer look at the safety depth of the Bears. Certainly there is a lot of room for someone to step up

Over at the Sun-Times, Sean Jensen discusses how Jay Cutler is enjoying new offensive coordinator Mike Tice’s open dialogue.

A lot has been made of how comfortable Cutler looks and feels in this offensive scheme which serves as a reminder as to how important it is for a quarterback and the coaching staff to be on the same page or at the very least, in the same book.

Tice and Cutler clearly get along in a way Cutler and Martz never did and we should see positive results on the field because of it.

Detroit Lions

With all the Jahvid Best/concussion/PUP discussion the last few days, you’d think we had a firmer grasp on the situation, but we don’t.

The Detroit Free Press’ David Birkett talks some more about the uncertainty surrounding Best and his potential return to the field.

I said it yesterday, but the longer this goes on, the more I think the team has to consider shutting him down long term. Nine months later and still no clearance? Something seems very wrong.

On a more positive note, most of the focus has been on the wide receivers and running backs so far, but don’t overlook tight end Brandon Pettigrew when considering the weapons the Lions have at their disposal.

Justin Rogers talks about Pettigrew’s goals and aspirations for the coming season over at MLive.com.

Like these stories? Follow the linked writers on Twitter!

@tydunne @zachkruse2 @1500ESPNJudd @markcraignfl @ESPNChiBears @Sean_Jensen @freeplions @Justin_Rogers

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