NFC North Preview

Six down, two to go! Welcome to Dank Game's NFC North preview. This is one of the most unbalanced divisions in the NFL. The Packers and Vikings are coming off 10+ win seasons and playoff appearances, while the Lions and Bears didn't win 10 games combined last season. While Detroit is slowly digging itself out of the only 0-16 season in NFL history, the Bears are showing a lot of desperation to win now without a lot of real potential to do so. Assuming Favre is still coming back, this division will remain a two way race in 2010.

Division Winner: Minnesota Vikings

The Vikings are almost certainly an aging team, but the roster is impressive nonetheless. They still have one of the best defenses in the NFC, especially the front seven, and the team's promising young players are the offense's biggest playmakers. Adrian Peterson, despite being outshown by Chris Johnson of Tennessee last season, is still one of the best two or three running backs in the league. Sydney Rice and Percy Harvin are two of the best young receivers in the NFL. Brett Favre is still Brett fucking Favre, and I don't believe his ankle is the issue he's making it out to be (more on that in a future post). Bottom line, this is practically the same team that made it to the NFC Championship game last year. It took them 5 turnovers to lose in a game that somehow remained close. If Favre is back, they very well could be Superbowl bound. I wouldn't expect any less than eleven wins, and I'm predicting twelve.

Division Runner-Up: Green Bay Packers

The Packers are a much better team than I realized last offseason. The team really did have their quarterback of the future in Aaron Rodgers and trading Favre no longer seems like a completely insane decision. Sure it must have hurt Packer fans to watch the Favre-led Vikings sweep them last season, but it's not as if the Packers are total slouches. On the contrary, they'll be the team to beat in the North once Favre and the "Williams Wall" of Minnesota retire. The Packers have few weaknesses, so assuming Rodgers keeps playing at a high level, they should be making a return trip to the playoffs. I'll give them eleven wins.

Division Third Place: Detroit Lions

Hey, I've got to mix something up in this division! After improving from 0-16 to 2-14 last season, I think the Lions are ready to take the next step. They're probably still a couple years or more away from the playoffs, but to even sniff a .500 record would probably make the Detroit faithful happy for now. At any rate, rookie quarterback Matt Stafford was injured some of last season, and played for a team with very little talent. With more competent people now running the organization, they should steadily improve to at least a middle-of-the-pack team. Assuming this year's rookies continue to improve the squad, they'll make a jump to six or seven wins.

Division Basement: Chicago Bears

I might regret this one, but Chicago is not particularly impressive this season. I thought the Cutler addition at quarterback last season would improve the squad, but the problems in Chicago run much deeper than who's playing quarterback. They're ex-QB proved he could actually play in Denver, and they're ex-running back proved he could play in Cincinnati. This tells me coaching is the problem. Head coach Lovie Smith has avoided losing his job for two straight years, but he'll have no excuses this year. In the end, I don't think pressure on the head coach will be enough to make this team any better. They're once formidable defense is now flat, and they didn't have any first or second round draft picks to bring in young talent. The Bears are a sinking ship, and they'll probably win five games.