Not which team was most disappointing... I think most people would say Philadelphia or San Diego. But which team do you think was the most disappointed with how their season looked to this point? There are some dooseys, for sure...

When the preseason got started, fans had had expectations, perhaps unreasonable, but it's always easier to speculate before the game is played. I'm going to list some peronal picks on this and of course, there's a poll.

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What kind of Donald Driver fan would I be without making things interesting?

To my mind, Double D is still the number two receiver despite completely understanding where his detractors are coming from. The evidence of receiver tenures weighs heavily in favor my being wrong on this but...

Anyone thinking Donald Driver's retirement is a boon to the Green Bay Packers is completely underestimating him.

So put your proverbial money where your mouth is: cast your vote and post the approximate total yardage you expect Donald Driver to achieve this season. Anyone under-bidding him in the poll has to add "I Love Donald Driver" to their signature for the 2012 season and anyone over-bidding him in the poll has to add "I Love Skip Bayless" to their signature.

Post your votes in the responses below.

(Sorry, you'll have to re-vote... I messed up!)

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Back in 2009, I bet my ex-boss that the Packers would make it to the playoffs and the Bears wouldn't.

What was at stake: If I won, I got tickets to a game at Lambeau against the Bears. If I lost, I would have to get a picture of Lombardi tattooed on me. I was thinking of that one with him being carried off the field, except with one of those hunks of cheese on his head.

Well, the Pack played the Cards in the Wild Card game and lost. BARELY. I still question the motives of the refs in that game.

But to this day, he insists that a Wild Card game is not a true playoff game. In fact, when I called him on it last year, he wouldn't even take a concilliatory bet. He even said they were going to go to the superbowl... as if that was supposed to make us square.

NOW, he wants a new bet...

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Let me just preface this post by saying that the lockout royally stunk if for no other reason than it handily proved that there was a thin line between cordiality and acrimony when discussing the politics of this sport and it was all made much worse by the instant accessibility of personal and institutional media. One month into it, I was certain that we'd actually lose part of the regular season, just because of the rhetoric from both sides which leaked out.

So we all knew that once both sides came to an agreement - and because we now have this level of access to goings on - everyone was going to get a crash course in how business gets done in a super-condensed, highly dynamic version of the NFL's personnel market. And it was actually pretty awesome!

But now, fans of certain teams have to be scratching their heads wondering if their favorite team's GMs were asleep at the wheel. Who do you think made out the best, this week? And who looked pretty unable to handle their business in crunch time?

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Once I pecked out my thoughts on the NFC North's first six games, there were so many good points made by everyone (thanks!), it gave me plenty of food for thought and so I wanted to follow up; particularly on the perception held by some fellow Packer fans (myself included) that the defending champs actually have a much easier road into the early stages of the season.

Even those who agree division rivals have an easier road in to the coming season think of the Packers as wrapping those first six games over .500, in spite of the fact that three of those opponents had winning seasons in 2010 and those three teams are who I'd like to focus on. Are the Packer opponents in this early stage just not the teams of last season? And what of those teams who didn't make the playoffs last year? Can we expect more of the same from them?

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The first six games of the regular season could go just about any way in the NFC North.

Yes, you have two teams who finished in the Conference Finals, one of whom is the defending Superbowl Champions. Absolutely, the Minnesota Vikings didn't play with much inspiration in the midst of their troubles. And most people are willing to bank that the Lions are going to be a better team this coming season.

But personel and identity changes can make a hell of an impact. And the first six

games in the schedule for each team isn't as kind to some as others.

So there you have it: personel and season outcome predictions for each NFC North team. We're likely to be wrong, but it'll be fun to track how right we were.

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