The NFC North Quarterback Circus and Our Safety Drama
Training camp is here and the NFC North is settling in for what promises to be a wildly uneven quarterback situation across four teams. Everyone has drama. Ours just happens to involve two safeties who may or may not be ready for Week 1, which feels very on brand for a franchise that has historically found creative ways to make things harder than they need to be.
Let’s start with Minnesota because their mess is genuinely entertaining.
Minnesota Has a Quarterback Competition That Isn’t Really a Competition
The Vikings are running a quarterback battle between Kyler Murray and J.J. McCarthy, and everyone involved is pretending this is a real competition. It is not.
Murray is the runaway favorite because he has actually played in the NFL at a high level. Arizona moved on from him, sure, but not because he forgot how to play football. It was financials and a new coaching staff, not a talent issue. McCarthy was the 10th overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft and he’s 23 years old with room to grow, but Kevin O’Connell is 43-25 in his career without a playoff win and firmly on the hot seat. This is not the time to roll with a developmental quarterback when you have a proven starter standing right there.
Murray is expected to win the job. If he doesn’t, things in Minnesota are even weirder than we thought.
Chicago Is Asking the Wrong Questions About Caleb Williams
The Bears are entering Year 3 of Caleb Williams and the biggest storyline is his accuracy concerns heading into training camp. Fans and reporters will track every pass he throws in practice like they’re auditing a tax return. Ben Johnson will do the same thing, except he’ll have context and actually understand what he’s watching.
Williams will get every defensive look imaginable in camp. He’ll experiment with footwork and ball placement. Not every pass will be perfect, nor should it be. The only people who can tell you if he’s making steady improvement are Johnson and Williams himself. Everyone else is just guessing.
Green Bay Is Trying to Get Healthy Again
Injuries cost the Packers the 2025 season and now they’re trying to piece it all back together. Micah Parsons is expected to miss at least the first four games while returning from a torn ACL. The question is when exactly he gets back. Early October? Later?
Tucker Kraft, Zach Tom, and Devonte Wyatt are also working their way back. Green Bay had 17 players in its rehab group during mandatory minicamp, 11 of whom are projected as meaningful contributors this season. If they can stay healthy, they’ll be dangerous. That’s a big if.
What’s Going On With Kerby Joseph and Brian Branch?
Both safeties are starting camp on the PUP list and that’s the biggest storyline for the Lions right now. Joseph hinted on social media that he wouldn’t land on PUP, but here we are. If you had to guess, he plays Week 1, plays all season, and the Lions are just being smart about it. They don’t want to rush him back if they don’t have to. That’s probably the right call.
Branch is the more uncertain case. He’s coming back from a torn Achilles suffered in December of last year and there’s a chance he could return about halfway through training camp. It depends on the specifics of the tear and the surgery. When Dan Campbell was asked whether Branch could come back during training camp, he did not say no. Campbell also said Branch has had no setbacks in his recovery and was getting some work in after practices during mandatory minicamp and OTAs. He wasn’t practicing with the team, but he was out on the field doing some stuff with trainers.
There’s reason to feel good about it. If the Lions can have arguably the two best safeties in the division together, that makes their team significantly better. If they can’t, we’ll find out what Christian Izien is really made of.
Are we overreacting to two safeties on PUP or is this another classic Lions slow burn? Drop your take below.
