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Matt Williamson scouts the NFL for ESPN.com, and this week he revealed his offseason grades for all 32 teams. You'll need an Insider subscription to view the full file, but I've been authorized by high-level executives to leak a few NFC North snippe...

As rosters shake out this summer, you'll hear a fair amount about the "youngest" and "oldest" teams in the NFL. Sometimes those figures and rankings can be skewed by aged kickers or an exceptionally youthful set of reserves, so I like what colleague ...

We're Black and Blue All Over: Good morning. Wednesday was quite the day here on the NFC North blog. During the trek back from the NFL owners meeting, I did my best to keep up with the Chicago Bears' decision to part ways with linebacker Brian Url...

We're Black and Blue All Over: As NFL free agency approaches, we're getting an idea of the players teams do and do not want to retain. One that falls in the latter category is Chicago Bears nickelback D.J. Moore, who intercepted 10 passes in three...

INDIANAPOLIS -- Chicago Bears coach Marc Trestman stopped short Thursday of calling Jay Cutler his "franchise" quarterback and said he hasn't spoken to anyone about a contract extension that would keep Cutler with the Bears beyond 2013. Trestman's ap...

OK. As of Monday afternoon, here is the most updated look at the election, withdrawal, addition and participation of NFC North players in Sunday's Pro Bowl game. By my count, 14 players will participate and seven will start. Four have been added b...

SAN FRANCISCO -- Good morning on a beautifully sunny day here. I'm rushing to the hotel lobby to meet our frantic NFC West blogger, Mike Sando, and dash over to Candlestick Park. You never know what pregame traffic is going to be like. Only seven hou...

We're Black and Blue All Over: You can go ahead and put running back near the top of the Detroit Lions' offseason shopping list. Again. Lions general manager Martin Mayhew gave a candid interview Wednesday night to local reporters, admitting th...

The end of a head coach's nine-year tenure disrupts deep loyalties, cracks comfort zones and quite frankly scares many of the people affected. That's why you're seeing at least some longtime Chicago Bears react emotionally to the firing of coach Lovi...

A second consecutive late-season collapse, along with the presence of a new boss who didn't hire him, was enough to end Lovie Smith's nine-year tenure with the Chicago Bears. The decision came quickly after the Bears missed the playoffs for the fi...

Let's take a quick look through Thursday's news in the NFC North: Chicago Bears: Tailback Matt Forte (ankle) returned to practice on a limited basis, giving him a chance to play Sunday at Ford Field. Cornerback Charles Tillman (ribs/elbow) also re...

Five things to know and my 2012 all-division team: Division MVP: If your definition of this award is the player who has the most impact on his team's winning percentage, then our MVP is Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers. If your MVP is t...

Perfect sense: Minnesota Vikings tailback Adrian Peterson has rushed for 1,898 yards this season -- 508 more than the next-closest running back. His fullback, Jerome Felton, has been responsible for a stunning dichotomy -- the Vikings average 7.7 yar...

The Detroit Lions have lost seven consecutive games even with receiver Calvin Johnson in the midst of his record-breaking run. So we can't come close to suggesting that a team must slow down Johnson, much less stop him, to beat the Lions. But as the ...

Earlier this week, we passed along the 14 NFC North players who finished among the top two in Pro Bowl voting by fans, which constitutes a third of the final makeup for NFC and AFC teams. As we await Wednesday's official announcement, here's my take ...

The actual game is only part of the joke that is the Pro Bowl. The voting process is far from ideal, as evidenced by the NFC North representation in the final fan balloting released Thursday. Fan voting weighs one-third of the total determination ...