Bears and Packers Pose Main Threats To Vikings In NFC North

            The Minnesota Vikings will be entering the 2009 season as defending NFC North champions, but doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be there once again this season.

            A different team has won the division in each of the previous three seasons and that could become four years in a row after the Chicago Bears have finally decided that having a quarterback might help a team win some games by trading for disgruntled Denver quarterback Jay Cutler.

            The Green Bay Packers, now entering year two of the Aaron Rodgers era, are still a team that is not even two years removed from a trip to the NFC championship game and should contend with the Vikings.

            Not to mention if Brett Favre decides to suit up in purple this year, that should give the Packers a little extra motivation to topple the defending division champs.

            And the Detroit Lions are, well, the Lions.

            Coming off a 0-16 season, it’s hard to say that they will be a contender, but then again the only way to go is up for the Lions.

            Also, the Miami Dolphins danced with imperfection two seasons ago, going 1-15, and turned that around into an AFC East championship – the same division as the New England Patriots – and a trip to postseason.

            So I guess anything is possible right?  Stranger things have happened.  And this is still the National Football League were teams go up and down faster than Brett Favre’s retirement.

            Minnesota also has the advantage of a very favorable schedule.  Four of the first five teams the Vikings face in 2009 – Cleveland, Detroit, San Francisco and St. Louis – didn’t make the playoffs last season and three of those four teams will be breaking in brand new head coaches next season.

            But Vikings fans should circle a few dates on their calendars because they could be huge for deciding the NFC North in 2009.

            What could be the most important game of the season will come in week 16 when Minnesota visits Soldier Field in Chicago to play the Bears on a Monday night.

            It’s a match-up that could decide who wins the NFC North and goes on to the playoffs and who sits at home watching the other come January.

            It’s a match-up that could feature Cutler for the Bears against, “fill in the blank” for the Vikings.

            Minnesota will need to figure out the quarterback position long before then to contend in the NFC North, but when they do, week 16 is where it may come down to.