We’ve made it! Finally the NFL season is upon us and we can stop pretending to care about baseball.

Unfortunately, for many in Houston, Florida, Oregon and California, football is less pressing than hurricanes and forest fires. So before we dive into the NFC North this week, we hope all our readers—as well as their families and friends—are safe and healthy, and continue to be so throughout the crises in those affected areas.

Now, on to the Not-Green Bay Packers teams in the NFC North.

Chicago Bears

This weekend I covered a local high school football game, and the home team pummeled the visitors 31-0. In talking to the coach of the winning team after the game, he asked if I would be at the following home game, this Saturday.

I said no, I’d be elsewhere, to which he responded “Ah, that’s fine. We’re going to lose by 50.All I want to do is get out of it healthy.”

I share this to illustrate how bad I think this game will be. A ticked off Atlanta Falcons team still stewing off one of the greatest collapses in Super Bowl history will play a Chicago Bears team which...does anyone know what this team is doing?

Head coach John Fox appears to be just killing time trying to figure out when the next job opening could happen. The team has decided, despite trading up to grab a new quarterback (which, frankly, I wouldn’t have done but that’s one of many reasons why I’m not a GM.) but not start the guy, going with Mike Glennon, a guy who looked awful in preseason until the last week when he looked serviceable against Tennessee.

The Bears are determined to bring him along slowly, and while you can understand not wanting to throw him behind that line, there's a good chance he ends up not getting many snaps as a backup.

The receivers they have are underwhelming, and several are hurt. Cameron Meredith suffered a torn ACL was lost for the season, and while that should create more opportunities for players like Kendall Wright and Zach Miller, those guys are still Wright and Miller.

They do have a nice running back in Jordan Howard, but he’s going to see a lot of stacked boxes and get little help from the offensive line, though at least the guards are stout.

If there is one bright spot, it's been linebackers Danny Trevathan and Leonard Floyd. Both have played well this summer and they, along with soon-to-be-healthy Prince Amukamara could make this defense better than it appears on paper.

Detroit Lions

Detroit is like that guy who sits in your group at lunch, occasionally adds something interesting to the conversation, but quickly fades into the background later.

He’s not incredibly attractive or ugly, not tall or really short, not compelling, but also not completely forgettable.

The Lions are just there.

It’s going to be hard to get a real read on this team  this week because the Arizona Cardinals are a bit of a mystery. The defense wasn’t as dominant last year but doesn’t seem to have improved much.

The offense is only as good as Carson Palmer and David Johnson are, but one has been hurt too frequently and the other can only do so much facing stacked fronts with an iffy offensive line.

Ameer Abdullah had himself an impressive camp, and could end up the main back the Lions have been missing for several years. Theo Riddick still got a lot of work in camp and preseason, but he's more of a third down back. Abdullah showed off a lot of quickness and an ability to make sharp cuts which could create some problems for defenses.

Golden Tate and Marvin Jones continue to be the focal point of the passing game and they've looked in sync with Matt Stafford this summer. The passing offense looked solid last year, but it got inconsistent later in the season, and the Lions are focusing on not allowing that to happen again.

The defense continues to be pretty good, but there have been hiccups, especially at defensive end. Kerry Hyder is out for the year, and Ziggy Ansah was on the PUP. The Lions need to find some players in their depth—which they did a good job building up—if they are to slow down offenses.

Minnesota Vikings

Welcome home, Adrian Peterson, hope you survive the experience!

This is actually the other game Packers fans might find interesting to watch. The Vikings have to prove the offensive line is better, the defense will be well tested by New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees and the passing game and they’ll get to see a good runner in the form of Minnesota rookie Dalvin Cooke.

They’ll also get to see Peterson, or the shadow of his old self. Even before injury last season, Peterson looked like he had lost more than a few steps. He’s going to have a hard time against this Vikings defensive front, and will also struggle to get into a rhythm with what will likely be an inconsistent amount of carries.

This offseason has been a lot of "Where in the world is Teddy Bridgewater?" The Vikings aren't really forthcoming with his progress and seem fine with having Sam Bradford hold the fort one more year.

Rookie Dalvin Cook has looked very good in the preseason, and it should be interesting to see how Peterson's heir apparent plays in a real game.

The receivers ended up looking much the same as last year—Stefon Diggs is the top guy and Adam Thielen will get plenty of looks. Michael Floyd is likely to be an also-ran again, and Laquan Treadwell looks like another miss by the Vikings scouting staff, though it's still too soon to call it completely.

Of course, the offensive line holds the key to anyone having a chance to be good. They are definitely looking improved and Riley Reiff makes* the left side look positively Hall of Fame worthy compared to what it normally looks like. Mike Remmers has done pretty well, also.

We'll see what that means this weekend. The Saints defense isn't fantastic, but neither is the Vikings offensive line to be honest.

The defense was hot and cold this August, so it remains to be seen if Mike Zimmer can make it another year of excellent play or not. They got tore up by the Seahawks in week three of the preseason, so there is clearly work that needed to be done.

*An earlier version of this article mentioned Alex Boone, who was cut. Which just goes to show you 1) our commentors are sharp eyed and 2) the Vikings offensive line might be better off playing players who don't exist.