NFC North Overview.

Minnesota Vikings 

The Vikings have a complicated offseason ahead of them, with Adams Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and his team having some cap acrobatics to take on. As Fans, We Hear A lot Of "HearSay" About Which Player Each Team Should Sign To Make Their Middling Team A Contender. Fans Were Like Kids Who Believe That A Parent's Money Has No End And That a Credit Card Could Swipe Into Infiniti. However, As With The Case With Parents, We Now Know The Reality, Limits, and Consequences Of Poor Credit Structure. Kirk Cousins Will Enter Free Agency This Offseason For The First Time Since Heights Signed Up With The Vikings For The First Guaranteed Contract In NFL history, the predecessor To Deshaun's Massive Contract; remember All The Fuss Kirk Created In 2018. That contract changed the game and created a crux point for many quarterbacks, and teams came to negotiate for the Vikings. That contract was a dilemma. Thanks To A Void Year In Kirk's Contract, If The Vikes Don't Extend Him, The Team Will Suffer A Dead Money Cap Hit Of Some 30 Plus Million amongst Other Things. A Dead Cap Hit Represents A Figure A Team Can't Use, Like Money On an account The Account Holder Can't Access Or Utilize.

The Vikings would enter next season without their veteran starting quarterback heading into his mildly concerning age 36 season, which is coming off of one of the most grueling injuries in football and all sports. The Void Year In The Contract Gives A Team, As Defined By OverTheCap, "…a way to finance a purchase you probably can't afford". You Don't Have To Possess The Knowledge Of A Financial Wizard To Understand The Danger Here, Whenever Your Deferring Charges Into The Future. The Bucs Faced This Same Dilemma When Tom Brady Retired, His Dead Cap Hit Of 35 Million After He Retired. Miraculously, The Bucs Settled For Baker Mayfield, And That Worked Out, But No One Expected Such. Most NFL teams expect the Cap to rise each year as the trend continues, and Sonya, the money next year for a player doesn't hurt as much. Think Of It As Owing A Credit Card Bill But Expecting A Raise Each Year Without Generally Accruing New Bills. Kirk's Not Entering Free Agency, The Vikings Must Keep Him. The Other Reason Justin Jefferson. Jefferson Awaits His New Deal As His Rookie Pact Enters The Final Year Before His Cap Number Also Erupts. Jefferson Could See Top Dollar At The Position—30 Million. Or More. I'm not Going To Make Contract Predictions, But He Most Likely Breaks The Bank With Or Without The Vikings Signing Him. The Vikings could punt on JJettas's contract and trade him for a first-rounder, as they acquired him when they traded Stefon Diggs. I Think Jordan Addison, Despite A Slow Start To The Season Or at least adjusting To The Second Option Position, Could Take Over That Top Spot In Kevin O'Connell's offense. 

The Green Bay Packers

For the First Three Years Of Matt Lafleur's Coaching Career, The Young Shanahan Disciple Set The Standard For Winning. Lafleur Won 13 Games In His First Three Seasons, That's 39-10 To Start A Career before Hitting A Snag last Season With Aaron Rodgers On The Decline But Lafleur Still Emerged With A 71.2 percent Win Rate. Most Statisticians And Football Analyst Don't Consider Wins A Quarterback Stat, And In Some Regard, Passing Numbers Can't Feature Other Influences, But Wins Generally Define A Coach. Yet, Lafleur Doesn't Inspire The Same Respect As His Two Predecessors, Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay, And Many Critics Point To Lafleur's Lack Of Playoff Success Compared To Other Coaches. Lafleur's Had The Top Seed In NFC three Times and Got Ousted Each Go. Matt Lafleur Inherited A Roster From Mike McCarthy That Came Built To Win With Aaron Rodgers And Davante Adams. Of Course, Lafleur Could've Inherited The Roster And Loss And Deflate, But Instead, He Tuned The Packers To Win And Rodgers to back-to-back MVPs. I Think What Lafleur Achieved Last Year, Steering A Essentially 25-Year-Old Rookie Jordan Love—Because That's What The Football World Thinks of Love— To A Top Five Rank In EPA Per Dropback. Love Exceeding Expectations On the Packers Risk To Draft Him In The First Round Four Years Ago, Tallying 4159 Passing Yards, 32 Touchdowns and 11 Before Entering The Postseason On A Tear, 0.26 EPA Per Play, A passer Rating Better Than 108, Twice Over 125, love Produced Five Games In The Regular SeasonOf Three Touchdowns And That Carried Over Into The Wild Card Round. Love And The Packers Smoked The Cowboys, Won A Playoff Game, And Almost Made the NFC Championship, But This Young Team Under Lafleur Gained Crucial Experience. The Top Of The Packers Top Receivers In Targets Share A Career Experience Level Of Seven Years, None Of Romeo Doubs, Luke Musgrave Or Christian Watson Have Played More Than Two Years, And LaFleur Lead This Team Riding The Hot Hand Of A Young Quarterback To A Playoff Win. last Season The Packers Brass Re-Worked Love's Contract To Give The Team An Early Out But With Love Proving Himself More Than A Rodgers Heir Apparent But A Man Capable Of Writing His Legacy With The Packers. The Packers Now Have To Pony Up In The Range Of 35-40 Million Dollar Per Season. If I'm Jordan Love, Maybe Take A Shorter Deal Front, maybe Three To Four Year Deal North of 110 Million Which Will Allow The 25 Year Old Quarterback To Renegotiate Before He Hits Age 30, Leaving An Opening For An Even Bigger Deal During The Strongest Era Of His Career(Possibly). Despite first-round talent at seemingly every position on defense, the Packers could only reach as high as the 21. According to ESPN's FPI Ranking, this disappointing finish for the defense led to the firing of defensive head Joe Barry. The Packers' Defensive Front consists almost Entirely Of Rounders, From Rashan Gary To Kenny Clark, Who leads the Team In Pass Rush Snaps to Edge Rushing Rookie Lukas Van Ness And A Team The Packers Finished 19th In Pass Rush Win Rate. Gary's Performance As A Pro Continues To Oscillate Widely. He's A Tier Talent With Average Production, And Even Average Feels Like A Stretch of A Compliment. He Posted 9 Sacks and 60 Pressures, and PFF graded him around 80, But He's Not A Consistent Game Wrecker, and The Pack Extended Him in Early October. The Pack Could Look To Extend Their Work Horse Defensive Interior Kenny Clark, Whose Cap Hit Ballons To Around 27 Million In The Final Year Of His Deal. The Packers may Look Into Parting Ways With Jaire Alexander, At Least According To Rumors. The Top Coverage Guy For The Packers, Alexander, Didn't Produce His Best Season In 2023 And Even Rubbed Some Coaches The Wrong Way With His Antics. He's an exuberant personality who sometimes hasn't shown that he can turn the "Antics" off. Curtis Alexander Would Save The Pack Around 15 Million On A Post June 1st Designation. The Packers possess one of the youngest Rosters in the sport, but this Matt Lafleur lead team does not enter the league As a Super Bowl sleeper but as one of the better options to take the NFC. 

Detroit Lions 

Wide Receivers: How Are We Not Catching Balls In 2024? I'm Not Focusing All the Down Of Detroits Fail Super Bowl Bid Slip Through The Paralyzed Hand Of Josh Reynolds. Look, I Can't Imagine Myself In The Moment, But Opportunities To Reach The Super Bowl Slip, Break, And Never assemble again. However, I don't think anyone Has Ever Said This, But Detroit rests In One Of The Most Enviable Situations In All Of Football. Most Of The Impact Player On the Roster Play On Rookie Deals, Whether That's Penrith Sewell, Jahmyr Gibbs, Sam Laporta, Or Even Amon-Ra St.Brown. The Lions Got And Will Project To Get High-Grade Quality From League Bottom dollar Contracts, Not To Mention Jameson Williams, The Former First round Wide Receiver whom We Haven't Seen The Best Of In His Two Year Career Thus Far. The Lions Will Most Likely Extend St.Brown And Make Him One Of The League's Highest Paid Corner Cookers In The League, And If You're Detroit, You Couldn't Hope For A Better Outcome For A Fifth Round Pick. Amon-Ra Proved Himself One Of The Most Efficient And Uncoverable Receivers In The League On His Way To a Career High. Brown Ranked Fifth In ESpN's Tracking Metric In Getting Open, Then Fourth In Catch, And Second Overall In The Rankings For A Season When Heights Finished Second In Catches and Third In Total Receiving Yards. He's The Lions Star and Just Entering His Age 25 Season. Jared Goff Arrived In Detroit, A "Throw" With The Matthew Stafford Deal, But He's The New Franchise Guy, And He's Due A New Franchise Like Contract Quarterbacks. Heading Into Age 30, Goff Probably Demands A Contract Of Four Years, 140-160 Million Dollars. And Detroit still has room to improve its roster.

The Lions Could Add Another Weapon On The Outside If They Let Josh Reynolds Walk. Guys Like Mike Evans Or Even Tee Higgins May Not Fall In Love With The Idea Of Traveling To The Chilly Midwest, and A Guy Like Calvin Ridley, Who Fits With The Lions, also Fits In That Vein. Maybe The Lions Dip Into Their Rivals' Roster And Come Away With Darnell Mooney; he's An Unproven Talent Who Could Elevate The Lions' Offense Even If He's A Duplicate Of Jameson Williams. Even Without A Perfect Fit In The Receiver Market, Detroit Also Needs To Train its Focus On Defense. Part of the drops that cost Detroit a spot in the Super Bowl came on defense, And Detroit players need turnover opportunities to come up. In The Defensive Back Market, Detroit Can Poke Their Hands Into Their Divisional Rival's Pocket And Pull Jaylon Johnson Away From Chicago. Johnson Ended The Regular Season Ranked as The Best Corner In Football By PFF's Numbers. If the Lions Want To Target Safety, Antoine Winfield Jr. from Tampa Bay Although He's Likely To See The Franchise Tag. The Lions Need To Find Someone To Help That Eye Sore Of A Pass Defense That Ranked Near The Bottom Of The League By The End Of Last Season And Also Gave Up A Rookie Record In Receiving Yards To Puka Nacua In The Playoffs and 347 Yards To Baker Mayfield If They Hope To Make This Roster A True Contender. The Biggest Win Of Detroit Offseason Already Past, Offensive Coordinator Ben Johnson Decided To "Run It Back," Turning Down Coaching Opportunities To Settle Unfinished Business in Detroit. Detroit Could Win The NFC next Season.  

Chicago Bears 

I Can't Keep Doing This With The Bears; These Past Two Seasons Have Felt Like The Final Episode Of The Disney Series "Loki." Loki, the god of mischief, approaches the desk of the ruler of time, "He Who Remains," to discuss succession. A Loki Variant Sylvia Kills Heights Who Remains, Only For Heights Who Remains To Reveal That The Parties Have Entered A Time loop In Which He Who remains, Reincarnates and Loki And Sylvie Must Face The Same Dilemma Of Kill Or Replace. The Bears Will Again Face The Same Dilemma, Staring Across The Table At The Number One Pick, Speculation Over Their Commitment To Justin Field Long, And Countless Trade Scenarios For Fields Or The Pick. Last Season, The Bears Traded The Number Pick And Ultimately The Rights To A Generational Talent In Bryce Young—The Deal Didn't Work Out Too Well For The Panther Last Season, And The Results of That Deal Beget This Number One Pick In 2024. This Year, The Bears Have Another Generational( And This Term "Generational" Will Soon Lose Value At This Rate) Quarterback Available At The Top Of The Draft In Caleb Williams. Last Season, Fields Looked Like A Star In His First Year as A Starter; Heights Threw A Brilliant Deep Ball, The Bears' Receivers Looked a lot Better Than Their Talent Suggested, and He ran The Ball A lot, Almost Breaking The Quarterback Rushing Record If Not For Two Injuries. I Think Everyone Watching The Bears This Season Expected More Of What We Got Last Season, With Possibly Improved Passing. Instead, We Got Inconsistency, And Not To Make Another Marvel Reference, But Season Two Of Justin Fields Reminded Me Of Marvel Phase Five. After Infinity War and the end game, fans want more compelling villains and more profound content, but instead, they receive inconsistent and amnesia-inspiring films across multiple movies. Almost Every Mock Draft Of Note Projects Caleb Williams To The Bears Number One Meaning Fields Will Dawn A New Uni Come Fall. If The Bears Keep Fields, They'll Most Gain Another First Round and Another Next Season, Opening The Door For Chicago To Bolster The Roster around Fields By Improving The Offensive Line, Adding Catching Options, Or Pivoting And Improving The Defense. The defense in Chicago improved tremendously after the Bears moved to secure Montez Sweat during the midseason. Infusing more talent into the roster could result in a more significant jump for Chicago next year. I Speculate The League May "Influence" The Bears To Move Fields For The Sake Of "Competitive," Not Allowing Chicago To Hoard More First Round Picks By Moving Off Of Number. No Matter Who Trades Up, The Moving Team Will Have To Pony Up' Another First Rounder To Get Into The Top Position, Giving The Bears Another Potential Top top-five next Season while an Already Fledging Team Struggles To Cope With The Growing Pains Of A Rookie Quarterback. Fields, Even Coming Off Of A Down Year, Has A First Round Pick Value, But I Think The Bears Get a Second Rounder And More, With The Possibility Of The Pick Conveying A First Rounder If The Field's Receiving Team Signs Him Long Term. In The End, I Think The Bears Trade Fields And Take Caleb Williams. I'll add, Now That The Bears Completed The Trade, Letting Fields's Former round Pick, Quarterback, Go Into the market For What Boils Down To A Sixth Or Fourth Pick, it Stands As A loss and A Representation Of Poor Business Acumen On The Part Of The Bears. To Cough Up One Of The Lesague's Brighter For What Could Turn Out As A "Utility" Pick