by Peter Schrager

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Ah, early July. In the world of NFL fandom, it's pure purgatory. Post-draft and OTAs, yet still a few weeks away from summer camps and actual preseason action — you just hold your tongue and watch the calendar. You feign interest in things like baseball and your family, but you're really just thinking football.

Over the next few weeks, we'll tackle five early summer questions for each NFL division.

Today's two-a-days: AFC South | NFC North

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AFC South

1. The Colts' streak of seven straight playoff appearances has to end in '09, right?

Not necessarily.

But boy, from what the media's been saying the past few months, these guys might not win a game in '09.

For as high as everyone is on the Texans this offseason, it seems as though the same folks are way down on Indy. The 2009 Colts haven't been buried by the critics; they've been embalmed.

By now, you know that the marquee names on the coaching staff have all changed, but what you might not realize is just how minimal the "coaching overhaul" really was.

New head coach Jim Caldwell's been with Indy for eight seasons. So has assistant head coach Clyde Christensen. Offensive quality control/offensive line coach Pete Metzelaars has been with the team for six years. Caldwell isn't some kid off the street — he's 54 with decades of coaching experience. The transition from coach-in-waiting to head coach was a smooth and agreeable one, and when Tony Dungy hung it up after the San Diego loss, there were no doubts Caldwell was both ready and the right man to take the reins.

As Caldwell told Sports Illustrated: "Often the word change denotes abrupt alteration of direction. Transition is smoother. The things that have happened with us have been rather smooth."

And the doors aren't exactly slammed shut on longtime offensive assistant coaches Howard Mudd and Tom Moore for the '09 season, either. Caldwell's gone on the record saying how he'd like to have them back if the numbers, contracts and pension details can be worked out. Whether as full-time coaches or "retired consultants," they may very well be back for Opening Day.

Regardless of where Mudd and Moore will be in September, you've got a guy named Peyton Manning under center. Remember him? The MVP of the 2008 season? The guy who came back from serious knee surgery to lead his team to nine straight wins and a playoff berth? The guy who has directed six straight 12-win seasons in Indianapolis? Yes, that guy.

Unlike the start of last season, Manning is healthy for Opening Day '09. There should be no embarrassments like last year's Sunday night affair versus Chicago and no balky knee.

The big change for the Colts is on the defensive side of the ball. Ron Meeks is out as defensive coordinator, and Larry Coyer is in. People forget this now, but the Denver defense was actually pretty darn solid for a few years under Coyer. He brings new blood and new intensity to a unit that got off to a rocky start in '08.

Personnel-wise, the Colts aren't all that different. Jeff Saturday and Bob Sanders are both healthy, Donald Brown adds some more punch to the running game, and the loss of Marvin Harrison isn't as bad as some have made it out to be.

I like Indy in '09.

I think.

2. Everyone is high on the Texans. Are they for real?

In short, the answer is yes. Houston finished the '08 season with five wins in their final six games, returns the majority of their key performers and brought in numerous personnel pieces over the offseason. One of the NFL's younger teams, the Texans are now a year older, a year wiser and for the time being, completely healthy.

Let's not sugarcoat this franchise's history of ineptitude. Houston's the only NFL team to never qualify for the postseason. Since their expansion season (2002), they've suffered through a carousel of head coaches, third-tier starting quarterbacks (Dave Ragone, Tony Banks, David Carr) and heartbreaking regular-season losses. In their seven years of existence, the Texans have compiled a 40-72 record.

They also play in the AFC South, which has sent two teams to the postseason in three of the past four years.

But here they are in July of '09 — and considered potential FAVORITES in the AFC South. How did this all happen?

Well, I was a year early on the Texans. I went gaga over them last August, calling them "the sleeper pick of '08" and pegging them for a wild-card berth. By the time Gary Kubiak was going for it on fourth down in the first quarter of Week 1 vs. the Steelers, I knew my prediction was in trouble. So I jumped the gun. Sue me. But I wasn't off by much.

The Texans finished last season as strong as any team in the league, feature one of the top-five offensive weapons in the game in Andre Johnson and in the past few offseasons have steadily put together a more than formidable defense. First-round pick Brian Cushing, second-round selection Connor Barwin and free-agent acquisition Antonio Smith will only make the defense better and deeper.

Houston's on the rise in '09. You probably can't say the same for the Colts, Titans and Jaguars.

Can they really make the playoffs?

Hell, why not? Everyone else in the league has. It's their time.

Patrick Ramsey will challenge Vince Young for the backup job in Tennessee. (Ronald Martinez / Getty Images)

3. Will it be Kerry Collins or Vince Young at QB in Tennessee?

Awkward.

The answer there is Kerry Collins.

Tennessee gave Collins a two-year, $14 million deal over the offseason — basically saying, "It's your team. We want to win now, and you're our guy to do it."

So, why awkward?

Because the better question is not "Collins or Young," but rather "Young or Patrick Ramsey ... to back up Collins?"

Ramsey, a reliable veteran who's started for the Redskins and the Jets, played for Titans offensive coordinator Mike Heimerdinger in Denver in 2007. The two had a solid working relationship, and Heimerdinger is one of the major reasons why Ramsey is in Tennessee in '09.

He's also a confident dude. In truth, he has no reason not to be. In Nashville, Ramsey thinks he can be the guy ... behind the guy. "They just said, 'Come in and the best players are going to be moved up,'" Ramsey told reporters last week. "Obviously, Kerry is the starter, and I'm going to be competing for the second job."

A year ago at this time, Vince Young was coming off 10-6 and 8-8 seasons, including a playoff appearance. He also was 12 months removed from an Offensive Rookie of the Year/Pro Bowl campaign.

Now? There's public discourse about him being the third-stringer in Tennessee. No one's even scratching their heads at the conversation.

It doesn't get much stranger than that.

4. Is the Titans' defense in serious trouble without Albert Haynesworth anchoring the line?

No.

Not this year, at least.

Tennessee's real issue will be next offseason. The Titans have more than a dozen players entering 2009 in the final years of their contracts. Two of them — Kyle Vanden Bosch and Keith Bulluck — are the undisputed leaders of the defense. Both players are in their early 30s and not getting any younger. If Collins' two-year deal represented a "Win Now" move, the contract situations of Vanden Bosch and Bulluck might mean "Win Now ... Like RIGHT NOW." Of the dozen or so 2010 unrestricted free agents on the roster, GM Mike Reinfeldt told The Tennessean, "We've had some internal discussions. Right now we are still evaluating how it will all shake out. ... It will be tough, but every year in the NFL is tough.''

As for Haynesworth, he'll be missed. The guy was the best defensive tackle in football last season and a legitimate MVP candidate. But it's not like the cupboard's completely bare at DT in Nashville. When Haynesworth and Vanden Bosch were both injured for last season's Week 16 battle with Pittsburgh, young linemen Tony Brown and Jason Jones picked up the slack. They'll both be relied on heavily in '09. Tennessee also went out and signed DT Jovan Haye — a player I really liked for 12 weeks last season in Tampa — to help lessen the Haynesworth blow. Rookie Sen'Derrick Marks is full of potential, as well.

The defensive backfield — perhaps the best unit in the league last year — remains relatively intact.

The Titans' defense will miss Haynesworth but should be fine in '09.

2010 could be the year to start worrying.

Holt has something to prove in Jacksonville. (Al Messerschmidt / Getty Images)

5. Who's playing receiver for the Jaguars these days?

There are only two Jacksonville wide receivers from the '08 roster entering camp in '09. Two! Matt Jones is gone. Reggie Williams is gone. Dennis Northcutt is gone. The list goes on and on and on.

So who, exactly, will be in Jacksonville catching David Garrard's passes in 2009? Torry Holt, for one. Unceremoniously released by the Rams after nearly a decade of service, Holt and his six Pro Bowl appearances come to Florida this season. You'd be crazy to think a competitor like Holt doesn't want to prove he's still got some gas left in the tank.

Mike Walker and Troy Williamson — two young veterans who weren't able to stay healthy in '08 — return as holdovers.

The real wildcards, though, are the rookies. I loved — loved — the three wideouts Jacksonville scooped up on the second day of the April draft: Mike Thomas is a shifty, Wes Welker-type who holds the Pac-10 record for receptions; Jarrett Dillard is a sure-handed, red-zone threat who holds the NCAA record for career touchdown receptions; and Tiquan Underwood was Mike Teel's go-to guy at Rutgers before Kenny Britt emerged in '08. All three kids could play major roles this season.

The Jacksonville receivers are certainly different in '09.

Based on 2008's disappointing results, they can't be much worse.

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NFC North

1. Is Jay Cutler capable of winning a division title?

Absolutely.

Everyone needs to forget the drama that engulfed Cutler over the past six months. Though you may have gone about it a bit differently, imagine a scenario in which you're doing very well at your job, a new boss is hired from an outside company and he's angling to get "his" guy from his old firm to replace you. All the while, he's doing this behind the scenes, without you knowing. Then, after things don't work out with his old buddy, he says you're his guy!

So it didn't go down exactly like that, but it was pretty darn close. Now Cutler has this public image of being an immature prima donna. Fine.

The guy's also one of the top 10 quarterbacks in this league. In the media's collective bash-job of Cutler a few months back, his unremarkable 17-20 career record continued to rise to the surface.

"He's not a winner." "He's all stats." "He's more of a fantasy football quarterback than a franchise one" — those were some of the sentiments we read and heard.

What everyone failed to mention was the fact that the Denver defense has been downright atrocious over the past two seasons. How's this for a stat? In games in which the Denver defense gave up less than 21 points over the past three seasons, Jay Cutler went 13-1 as the team's starting quarterback. That one loss came in a crazy OT loss to Brett Favre and the Packers on Monday Night Football.

Which leads us to the NFC North. Does Cutler have what it takes to lead a team through the brutal cold of the NFC Norris in the late winter months? Chicago doesn't have the weapons at wideout or on the offensive line that Cutler did in Denver, but the running game and defense are certainly better.

Jay Cutler's not a loser, and the Bears won't be losers under his wing.

Denver will miss him. Prima donna or not.

2. Is the "F" word secretly already a Minnesota Viking?

As you may know from , I'm refraining from referring to the dude who used to play quarterback for the Packers by name until he's officially back in the league. I'm just sick of seeing the word, hearing it aloud and the national obsession over the guy's summer vacation. I lost a July Fourth weekend to "F" word-mania last year; I refuse to lose this year's, too.

That might be impossible, though. According to the popular football blog Pro Football Talk, there are legitimate rumors circulating about the "F" word actually already being a Viking. According to the site, sources say Minnesota and the Favre camp are just waiting until July 3 — the start of a holiday weekend, where media attention would be minimal — to announce the news.

Then last Wednesday, WCCO's Mark Rosen came out and said a reliable source confirmed that Favre and the Vikings had already come to a contract agreement with "heavy incentives." Rosen also said the Vikings' equipment manager had ordered No. 4 jerseys with "F" word's name on it.

And you thought the Jon and Kate conspiracy theories were great!

Rumors, unnamed sources, blah, blah, blah. It all comes with the territory when you're dealing with this fellow.

Give me Jay Glazer providing up-to-the-minute updates from an airport Brookstone store like last summer when he broke the Favre-to-New York news.

Until then, I don't want to hear anymore about the "F" word.

And if he is already a Viking — that's great. Suit him up and get him on the field. Enough talk ... talk ... talk ...

3. Will the Packers field a real defense in '09, or last year's JV squad?

After what was a downright embarrassing effort in 2008, the Green Bay defense should look very different in '09. Old defensive coordinator Bob Sanders and most of his staff are gone. In comes Dom Capers and his 3-4 scheme. Yet, the players — mostly hand-picked and molded to work the 4-3 — remain mostly the same.

Tough situation that could make for a tough transition. Defensive leader Aaron Kampman, for example, will go from being a sack specialist defensive end to an outside linebacker, working in pass coverage on many downs. That's not a particularly easy move for a veteran.

Yet, word out of Green Bay is that the Packers' defensive coaches and players spent more than just the OTAs learning the complexities of the new Capers scheme. Players and coaches were meeting on their own time, learning, studying and talking the 3-4. Everyone's committed and on board — potential holdout safety Nick Collins, included.

Brady Poppinga has accepted the challenge of switching form a 4-3 to a 3-4 defense in Green Bay. (Al Messerschmidt / Getty Images)

One player who really seems to be relishing the challenge is linebacker Brady Poppinga. On the transition from 4-3 to 3-4, Poppinga told The Associated Press last week: "It's a process. When I came in here, I was a malleable piece of clay four years ago. Now, I'm breaking that clay pottery down — boom! — to build it back up. So it's a process. But I think I'm taking the necessary steps, and I'm enjoying the moment."

In addition to the scheme change comes a few package wrinkles, too. When the Packers go to their dime and nickel packages in '09, they will end up featuring what appears to be just two down linemen. According to Rick Braun of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "In effect, it becomes a 2-4-5 defense, with two of the four linebackers — and maybe a third linebacker or a defensive back — also likely to rush. The question the offense has to answer is, 'Which two?'"

On top of the coaching, scheme and package changes, there are some new faces in town, too. Rookies B.J. Raji and Clay Matthews bring young legs; safety Anthony Smith has the knowledge of the 3-4 from his Pittsburgh days.

Green Bay's defense should be much improved in '09.

4. What do the additions of Julian Peterson and Larry Foote mean to Detroit's defense?

They'll help.

Peterson, a five-time Pro Bowl player and a three-time All-Pro, still has some good football left in his legs. Traded in a package deal in the offseason, Peterson provides the veteran leadership and experience to what will end up being one of the younger defenses in the league. Foote is a two-time Super Bowl champion who can still get it done. Joined together with four-year veteran Ernie Sims, the three actually make for a formidable linebacker corps in Detroit. Lions fans haven't seen one of those in ... well, decades.

The issue, of course, will be the defensive line. The Peterson-Sims-Foote trio will be over-taxed and weary by Week 4 if there's no help up front. And from the looks of it, the talent on the defensive line does not look much better than it was last year.

I was very surprised in April when the Lions waited until the fourth round of the draft to select a defensive tackle — Sammie Lee Hill out of Stillman. DE and DT appeared to be Detroit's most pressing needs, yet they opted to beef up at other positions over the first three rounds, instead.

But maybe I've assessed the situation poorly and things aren't as dire along the defensive line as they appear. Maybe the front office and Jim Schwartz like what they have in Detroit up front. Either way, the Lions will have to make due with what they've got. Grady Jackson is a 13-year veteran who can still do the job at DT, second-year man Andre Fluellen has shown some promise and DeWayne White's had some very productive years in Tampa Bay. Individually, there are some decent players. Can they pull it all together to form a somewhat capable defensive line?

Peterson and Foote should make a difference. But they won't be able to do much without some production from the front four.

5. Will the Lions win a game this year?

You'd sure like to think so. It might take until Nov. 1, though. That's when Detroit takes on the young St. Louis Rams, the only opponent Detroit could be favored against in the first eight weeks of the season. So circle that date, Lions fans. It could make for quite a Sunday.

Get pumped for that potential 1-6 start. Woohoo!