The Detroit Lions won the NFC North and reached the NFC Championship last year. The Minnesota Vikings revamped their defense, and the Chicago Bears landed Caleb Williams with the first-overall pick. Still, Green Bay holds the ultimate trump card over Chicago, Minnesota, and Detroit.
They have the best quarterback in the division.
Jordan Love had a good season in 2023, throwing for over 4,000 yards and 32 touchdowns. If he can build off that and continue improving his game, he can have a Pro Bowl-caliber season.
The quarterback position stands out the most, not only because Love is projected to have a good year. Instead, it’s because the other quarterbacks in the North are either young and inexperienced or just not very good.
Jared Goff is the best quarterback in the North besides Jordan Love. Last year, Goff threw for over 4,500 yards and 30 touchdowns, leading Detroit on a playoff run. He had a Pro Bowl-type season but struggled in a few games.
Goff threw three touchdowns and five interceptions in the two meetings against the Bears in 2023. He also threw two crucial interceptions against the Dallas Cowboys in Week 17, allowing them to earn the No. 2 seed in the NFC last year.
However, Goff can torch an opposing defense, as he did in a 42-17 blowout against the Denver Broncos in Week 15 when he threw for 278 yards and five touchdowns.
Goff has turned into a franchise quarterback in Detroit. Still, given his history with the Los Angeles Rams and how much he fell off after the 2018 season, I don’t believe he can consistently put up Pro Bowl numbers every season. He can manage a game well but is still a game manager and system quarterback.
Love trumps Goff and the Lions because the Packers have young weapons and a healthy run game.
Minnesota lost Kirk Cousins in the offseason, and its quarterback room is full of inexperience.
The Vikings drafted Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy with the 10th-overall pick. McCarthy has not played a single down of professional football yet and is only 21 years old, so Love’s advantage here is obvious.
Sam Darnold, Nick Mullens, and Jaren Hall are the other guys in Minnesota’s quarterback room. Darnold will start for the Vikings this year and could play the entire season. He may be more productive in O’Connell’s system than he was with the New York Jets or the Carolina Panthers, but the former third-overall pick no longer projects to be a franchise quarterback.
Mullens puts up numbers, but he’s not a reliable quarterback. In the five games Mullens played last year, he threw for 1,306 yards, an average of 261 yards per game. In a 17-game season, that would get to about 4,440 yards in a full season.
Nobody in Minnesota’s quarterback room compares to Love. McCarthy may develop into a franchise quarterback, but he needs time to adjust to the NFL. Darold is a bridge quarterback, and Hall is a fifth-rounder out of BYU.
Last, we have the Chicago Bears, an organization famous for poor quarterback play. In 2021, they used the 11th-overall pick on Justin Fields. However, they traded him to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the offseason and used the first-overall draft pick they got from the Carolina Panthers to land Williams, the Heisman Trophy winner from USC.
Williams will be Chicago’s Week 1 starter. Starting Tuson Bagent or Brett Rypien would make no sense when Williams can get solid experience and reps. Williams was the best player in the draft, and they are trying to win immediately with him. He’ll have D.J. Moore to throw to, but that is the only elite name Chicago has at wide receiver. The Bears don’t have a strong run game to take the pressure off Williams.
His teammates have said positive things about him, but ESPN’s Courtney Cronin also reported that Williams was inconsistent in OTAs. That’s expected for a rookie quarterback. Assuming the Bears start him in Week 1, he could have a typical up-and-down rookie season.
Jordan Love will face Jared Goff and two unproven rookies in the NFC North. Detroit has Goff, some weapons, and a decent defense. Chicago has a stout defense and a promising quarterback, and the Vikings are only a year removed from winning the division. However, the Packers have the best player at the most important position in football.
