Brett Favre: Packers ‘in a different stratosphere’ than rest of NFC North

For many pundits, the Minnesota Vikings looked like a fashionable pick to repeat as champions of the NFC North. The season-ending knee injury to quarterback Teddy Bridgewater caused some revisions to that prediction, although there are those who think the Vikings still look formidable with newly acquired Sam Bradford.

One person who isn’t on the Vikings’ bandwagon is someone who once quarterbacked them: Brett Favre. Instead, he is firmly aboard with the team with which he built his Hall-of-Fame career: The Green Bay Packers.

“I just look at Green Bay as being in a different stratosphere right now than Minnesota, Detroit and Chicago,” Favre said in the debut of his recurring spot on the SiriusXM Blitz. “Until proven otherwise.”

In Favre’s view, the Vikings’ loss of Bridgewater was a “tough break” for the quarterback and the team. He sees overcoming it as an enormous challenge.

“Can you overcome it? Yeah, you can overcome it,” Favre said. “But you sure would like to have your quarterback. And I felt like Teddy was really starting to come into his own. It seemed to me that their team was becoming what they would say is a real team, a legitimate team. And that’s just a big blow. I’ve been there when we’ve lost a guy like that and the coach always says, ‘Hey, we plug the next guy in, we go on.’ That’s what we do. It’s easier said than done, especially when it’s the quarterback position.”

Favre considered the acquisition of Bradford from Philadelphia for first- and fourth-round draft picks a “good move,” although time will tell just how well it will work out.

“But I thought, from the outside looking in, it was a good move,” he said. “By no means am I knocking Sean Hill. Whether Sam plays right away or not, you have to have someone else. And I think Sam Bradford didn’t necessarily fit Chip Kelly’s system. I think we all could agree with that, which was kind of a head-scratcher — getting rid of (Nick) Foles for Bradford when neither really fit that system. But I do think, from the outside looking in, Sam Bradford not only would have fit Philly’s (current) system to a T, but I think he does the same for Minnesota. I think he’s tailor-made for that type of system.

“The focus is on Adrian Peterson and the run game. That’s great. You can kind of transition slowly. It really fits what his style of play is, so I thought it was a good move.”

Catch Brett Favre every Tuesday on “The Blitz” on SiriusXM NFL Radio on Channel 88.