ESPN Search

Football Outsiders, a statistics-based analysis service, has been producing division-by-division Insider files on remaining team needs. You'll need a subscription to read the entire NFC North post , but below I've taken a few excerpts and written a f...

Reggie Bush's appearance Friday morning on the NFL Network reinforced what should be a fun 2013 trend in at least two sectors of the NFC North: Running backs catching passes. Lots of them. How many? Well, we can say this: We have two connections t...

A look at key players for each NFC North team who are coming back from injuries: Chicago Bears: Place-kicker Robbie Gould needed offseason surgery after rupturing a semitendinosus tendon in Week 15 and still hadn't been cleared to kick 13 weeks la...

We're Black and Blue All Over: Good mid-Friday morning and let's get straight to our morning tour: Dan Pompei of the Chicago Tribune answers several questions about Chicago Bears guard Kyle Long in his weekly mailbag. The Bears promoted Mark...

Chicago Bears general manager Phil Emery took the diplomatic route Wednesday when asked about Gabe Carimi's absence from the team's organized team activities. Carimi missed OTA sessions on Monday and Tuesday, the first two workouts of 10 league-ma...

Maybe it's a habit. Despite the NFL's near-elimination of drama in signing draft choices, I still field daily questions about the status of negotiations. So it seems to be a good time to re-set things here in the NFC North now that the Minnesota Viki...

We're Black and Blue All Over: The Minnesota Vikings finally are following up on their first instinct on Joe Webb. Four years after drafting him with plans to attempt a conversion to receiver, the Vikings have confirmed that Webb is now a receiver...

ESPN analyst Herm Edwards raised an important and relevant point in this discussion about how the Chicago Bears hope to elevate quarterback Jay Cutler this season. "Sometimes he hangs on to the big play too much," Edwards said. "[He] wants to make...

We're Black and Blue All Over: It appears that a tough market for former Green Bay Packers defensive back Charles Woodson is loosening a bit. According to ESPN's Josina Anderson, Woodson will visit the Denver Broncos on Wednesday and has an offer ...

A mere two years later, the 2011 draft is crumbling for most of the NFC North. At a time when it should be forming the nucleus of our respective teams, the class of '11 is instead causing some of our most gaping holes. The futures of two first-rou...

Welcome to the 2013 version of Insider's offseason staple series: Red Flags. This is the sixth of an eight-part examination in which Football Outsiders identifies the biggest remaining issue for every NFL team, division by division, after the NFL dra...

In what appears to be a coincidence of timing, Chicago Bears receiver Brandon Marshall appeared Monday on "NFL Live" to discuss treatment for mental illness at around the same time the father of former Detroit Lions receiver Titus Young was hinting t...

We're Black and Blue All Over: Monday nights in May are not supposed to be as newsy as yesterday's was. We noted the unveiling of the Minnesota Vikings' new stadium/Fortress of Solitude, but several other items popped up as well. We'll start with ...

Football Outsiders examines the most pressing remaining issue after the 2013 draft for every NFC North team.

Story | Conversation | May 14, 2013

Chicago Bears general manager Phil Emery was careful last month to avoid pinpointing an exact position for rookie linebacker Jon Bostic, a middle linebacker at Florida who should have the inside track to be Brian Urlacher's long-time replacement. Vet...

We're Black and Blue All Over: Mike McCarthy is going to wish he thought of this one. The Green Bay Packers' coach often unveils some sort of new technology or practice approach in his efforts to improve over the previous year, but the newest thin...