Chicago Bears
2024 Record: 5-12 (4th in NFC North)
Head Coach: Ben Johnson (1st season)
Notable Additions: C Drew Dalman, G Joe Thuney, DT Grady Jarrett
Notable Departures: G Teven Jenkins, C Coleman Shelton, WR Keenan Allen
Biggest Reason for Excitement: The Hiring of Ben Johnson
Historically, the Bears aren't known for making splashy head coaching hires. Lovie Smith and Matt Nagy are the only times in recent memory they even hired a coach that had a real market for their services around the league and it's probably not a coincidence that they've been the two most successful coaches they've had post-Ditka by a wide margin. When Matt Eberflus was fired after his inexplicably awful clock management cost them a golden opportunity to pull off a miracle comeback against the Lions on Thanksgiving last November, most people thought they would hire a stable vet like Mike McCarthy or the rejuvenated Kliff Kingbury due to his experience working with Caleb Williams at USC. Instead, they shocked the world by hiring Ben Johnson. What made this move particularly stunning was Johnson's well-known pickiness when it came to job offers. He had elected to stay with the Lions in 2023 and 2024 due to not liking the openings that were available, so it was eyebrow-raising that he felt the Bears provided him with the right opportunity to finally make the leap into the head coaching ranks.
As a Bears fan, I can say with zero hesitation that this is the most exciting thing to happen the franchise in forever. Johnson is the most buzzed about coaching candidate since Sean McVay and his innovation and creativity as an offensive mind has made him the best playcaller in football 3 years running. On top of that, the respect he commanded and accountability from his players that he demanded in the Lions locker room offers a much-needed change-of-face from the loose environment the Bears had during Eberflus' tenure. A great offensive mind working with a young QB that has the level of promise that Williams possesses that can also completely change the culture of the team is precisely what this team needs right now and I'm alarmingly optimistic that he's going to deliver on the high expectations that have been placed on him.
Biggest Reason for Concern: Caleb Williams Not Grasping the Offense
Caleb Williams got thrown to the wolves to a degree that nobody really expected him to in his rookie year. He had to endure a shoddy offensive line that led to him get sacked a whopping 68 times (3rd most sacks taken in a single season in NFL history), mid-season coordinator change from Shane Waldron to Thomas Brown and questionable effort levels from some of his teammates as their season slipped through their grasp as their solid 4-2 start was followed up by a miserable 10-game losing streak. Williams himself deserves his share of the blame as well as he regularly looked indecisive (hence why he only threw only 6 picks last year) and held onto the ball for too long while also missing some easy throws that most QB's would have no problem making.
The biggest red flag surrounding Williams coming into the NFL was his tendency to improvise. Turn on any tape from his time at Oklahoma or USC and you'll be greeted with dozens of plays where he scrambles around like a maniac then chucks the ball downfield. These off schedule plays also happen to be one of his biggest strengths, but it won't be able to be his bread-and-butter in the pros. It's since been revealed that this tendency has developed from playing on teams that didn't require him to adhere a rigid routine. In other words, he didn't receive tough or detailed coaching in high school or college and that caused him to rely on improvisation to make plays.
This brings us to this offseason. For the first time in his football playing career, he's being coached hard and asked to run an offense with a real structure and purpose behind it. Can he handle this responsbility? Early results in camp have been mixed. While there's been periods where he's been sharp, Bears beat reporters and Johnson himself have expressed frustration with their struggles with lining up, timing on throws and basically all of the small but key details that are needed to fall into place for an offense to be effective.
To be fair to Williams, there's inevitably going to be a learning curve with this system. No quarterback on the planet can just seamlessly run shit they've never been asked to do on a football field after a couple weeks of practice. The harsh reality is that there's a real chance that Williams just doesn't have it in him to run a scheme like this. He's still very young at 23 going on 24, but it could be too late for him to pick up something that has a level of intricacy and purpose behind it that's unlike anything else he's seen during his time playing football. Not everybody who sets out to learn a new language can pick that shit up and we should have an answer about Williams' football learning skills by the end of the season.
Key to Reaching Their Ceiling: Regaining Their Confidence After a Shitshow 2024
The 2024 Bears had themselves one hell of a sad campaign. From a 3-week stretch where they lost games to all 3 of their divisional running mates by a combined total of 7 points to the infamous Hail Mary loss to the Commanders where embattled starting corner Tyrique Stevenson batted the ball up instead of down-which allowed Noah Brown to make an easy catch in the endzone, this string of losses just forced the team to slowly bleed out until Eberflus fully lost the locker room following the aforementioned loss to the Lions on Thanksgiving and got fired. To his credit, interim HC Thomas Brown-who also served as their offensive coordinator for the final 7 games of the year following Shane Waldron's dismissal in mid-November- did reestablish a bit of a spark in the room over the final 5 games and eventually led them to an upset Week 18 road win over an engaged Packers squad that was battling for playoff seeding.
A top priority for Johnson and his top assistants DC Dennis Allen and OC Declan Doyle this year is working to instill confidence back in this locker room. Most of the 2024 roster is still around and certainly hasn't forgotten how deflating it was to lose 10 straight games and have a promising season spiral out of control in the blink of an eye. The way they closed out the season with the win over the Packers was encouraging and this staff would be wise to use as that a springboard even though only a small number of them were actually in the room (special teams coordinator Richard Hightower, tight ends coach Jim Dray, assistant linebackers coach Kevin Koch and defensive quality control coach Kenny Norton III are the sold holdovers from 2024). There's enough on talent on this team, especially on defense, for them to make a quick turnaround this season, they just need to be pushed into believing they can compete at a high level. That's a tough ask for a 1st time head coach in his 1st year on the job, but if Johnson is as special as everybody thinks he can be, he should be able to pull it off.
Bottom Line:
While it's unquestionably misguided and irrational thought considering their tragic history as an organization, my belief in Ben Johnson is so high that I'm buying into the Bears making to the playoffs this year.
Detroit Lions
2024 Record: 15-2 (1st in NFC North)
Head Coach: Dan Campbell (5th season)
Notable Additions: CB D.J. Reed, CB Avonte Maddox, DT Roy Lopez
Notable Departures: C Frank Ragnow (retired), CB Carlton Davis, G Kevin Zeitler
Biggest Reason for Excitement: They're Still Really, Really Good
There's a "the sky is falling!" kind of vibe surrounding the Lions right now that's kind of fucking bizarre. That's not to say there isn't some concerns to be had with this team because there very much are. Losing both coordinators and 2 key pieces to an elite offense line (Frank Ragnow, Kevin Zeitler) in the immediate aftermath of a season that ended with them getting their asses kicked on their home field by an inferior opponent in the Divisional Round is a tough blow that are probably going to be uphill battles for them to overcome. I'm going to say something controversial: I think the Lions are still very good.
They still have an unstoppable 1-2 RB tandem in Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery. Jared Goff will still have the opportunity to throw to a dynamic group of pass-catchers led by Amon-Ra St. Brown, Sam LaPorta and Jameson Williams. The steadiness of their tackle duo of Taylor Decker and Penei Sewell will be able to cancel out at least some of the uncertainty surrounding their overhauled interior line (rookie Tate Ratledge and 2nd year pro Christian Mahogany-who logged 1 start as a rookie- are projected to start at guard while Graham Glasgow shifts over to center from right guard), Aidan Hutchinson will be back from his broken leg and should be hungry to finish a season as the league's leader in sacks after holding that position when he got hurt last season. Top free agent pickup D.J. Reed could prove to be the pure #1 corner they've been looking for and desperately needed since Darius Slay left town ahead of the 2020 season. Their young defensive corps (Hutchinson, Alim McNeill, Jack Campbell, Brian Branch, Kerby Joseph, hopefully Terrion Arnold if he can bounce back from a rough rookie campaign) remains one of the finest in the entire league. Dan Campbell still knows how to lead and motivate his team as well as any coach in the league. Are they going to win it all? No. As I've said many, many times over the last few years, the Lions aren't allowed to go to the Super Bowl, let alone win it and nothing can be done to break this sacred unwritten rule. But they should continue to be one of the top teams in the NFC and get people excited for a deep playoff run before inevitably breaking their hearts once again.
Biggest Reason for Concern: The Ransacking of the Coaching Staff
Every so often, one successful team is unlucky enough to lose a ton of assistant coaches in a single offseason including both coordinators. The Lions became the latest member of this club when Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn accepted head coaching jobs with the Bears and Jets respectively in late January. Here's a quick overview of the coaches that Johnson and Glenn took with them to their new homes and the roles they held with the Lions last season:
Ben Johnson: Antwaan Randel El (wide receivers coach), J.T. Barrett (assistant quarterbacks coach)
Aaron Glenn: Tanner Engstrand (passing game coordinator), Steve Heiden (tight ends coach), Cameron Davis (assistant defensive line)
As an extra kick in the balls, defensive line coach Terrell Williams also departed to become the Patriots DC under his old friend Mike Vrabel (Williams was on his staff with the Titans from 2018-23). That brings the final departing staff total to 2 coordinators and 6 position coaches. Yikes!
Naturally, losing so many assistants presents some real challenges. The loss of continuity paired with shifts in philosophies/playcalling tendencies and experience level can drastically damage the efficiency of the entire operation. The best recent example of the damage that can come from this level of changeover is what happened with the Eagles in 2023 after Shane Steichen and Jonathan Gannon left. Brian Johnson and Sean Desai were named the new coordinators and at the start of the year, everything was generally alright as they got off to a 10-1 start despite various hiccups that emerged-particularly on the back end of the defense. Then, things suddenly started to spiral out of control starting with a 42-19 blowout loss to the 49ers in Week 13. The offense stagnated, the defense got so bad that Desai eventually ceded his playcalling duties to Matt F'n Patricia (who was unsurprisingly worse!) and the team ultimately finished the year on a 1-6 skid that ended with a 32-9 beatdown at the hands of the Buccaneers. Of course, the Eagles quickly corrected this problem by axing all 3 of these gents ahead of the 2024 season, hired Kellen Moore and Vic Fangio as their replacements and immediately returned to peak form on their way to winning the Super Bowl.
The two men tasked with taking over for Johnson and Glenn are John Morton and Kelvin Sheppard. Morton served as the Broncos passing game coordinator under Sean Payton for the past 2 seasons while Sheppard was promoted internally after serving as a linebackers coach under Glenn for the past 4 seasons. While they have a big gap in age and tenure on the job (Morton is a 55-year old who began coaching in 1999 after a brief pro career, Sheppard is a 37-year old who played linebacker in the NFL from 2011-2018 and has only been coaching since he joined the Lions in 2021), they're both similarly green in terms of NFL top assistant experience. While this will obviously be Sheppard's first time overseeing a unit in the pros, Morton has one prior stint as a pro OC with the Jets back in 2017 on his resume. Things didn't go great for Morton as the offense ranked 24th in scoring, 24th in passing and 19th in rushing and he didn't get another crack at it as his boss Todd Bowles got fired at the end of the year. It does need to be noted that was the Jets team that had the bright idea to task a 38-year old Josh McCown to lead their team and had to resort to starting Baylor legend Bryce Petty after McCown broke his hand in Week 14, so he didn't exactly have the talent pool in East Rutherford then that he'll have in Detroit now.
While I can't speak on how different they'll be from their predecessors on a schematic or philosophical level, their collective greenness is a huge dark cloud hanging over this team right now. As much as I just poopooed the extent of the over-the-top fatalism the Lions fans are expressing towards their team right now, turning a huge part of their operation over to a pair of guys that lack proven track records as pro coaches is worrisome to say the least. Campbell isn't a great X and O's coaches by any stretch and has relied on his assistants (particularly offensively) to make waves since he got here. If that support system collapses now that Johnson and Glenn are gone, there could prove to be some dire consequences for this team somewhere down the line.
Key to Reaching Their Ceiling: The Defense Pulling Their Weight
As I discussed a couple weeks back in my Jets preview piece, the Lions defenses under Glenn were mostly quite bad. Even last season when they had the 7th ranked scoring defense and started to really solidify themselves as a strong run-stuffing unit (5th in the league), they quickly unraveled in the playoffs and looked like the perennial bottom 10 unit they were during the 3 prior seasons.
The kicker is this team has a lot of real talent at every level of defense (Aidan Hutchinson, D.J. Reader and Alim McNeill up front, Jack Campbell at linebacker, Brian Branch and Kerby Joseph at safety), it just hasn't coalesced into something that's strong overall. Being able to unlock that great top-to-bottom unit is the biggest challenge that Sheppard faces in his new role.
Given their strength at stopping the run and safety, the focus needs to be in two areas: corner and pass-rushers beyond Hutchinson. The corner situation last season was once again a pure disgrace for the Lions as Carlton Davis had a down year in what ended up being his only season with the team, Terrion Arnold was way too handsy and undisciplined during his aforementioned poor rookie campaign and Amik Robertson was the exact average-to-below average slot corner he while he was with the Raiders. This year, they're merely swapping out Davis for Reed-which should be an upgrade given Reed's steadier track record in coverage and better durability, so the play of Arnold and Robertson could ultimately dictate if they finish in the bottom 3 once again or start to turn this ship around.
The staggering ineffectiveness of the Lions pass rush beyond Hutchinson can be magnified by just 1 simple statistic from last season: Hutchinson led the team in sacks with 7.5 despite appearing in only 5 games. The 2nd place finisher was Za'Darius Smith, who logged 4 sacks in 8 games after being acquired from the Browns ahead of the trade deadline. They seem to be banking heavily on Hutchinson coming back firing on all cylinders to start this season as they signed no new free agents and the only draft pick they made at this spot was a 6th rounder (Ahmed Hassanein) who isn't even a guarantee to make the roster. That's a really risky maneuver by GM Brad Holmes as Josh Paschal has proven that he can't be effective in the pros (he matched his career-high in sacks last season with 2 despite logging 10 starts in place of Hutchinson) and current projected starter alongside Hutchinson Marcus Davenport is one of the least durable players in the league, appearing in just 69 games through 7 NFL seasons (and just 6 in the past 2!!!). If Davenport can stay healthy, they could have something as he's flashed in the past, but that's a big if.
Even if the offense can find a rhythm under Morton, this team will continue to have a hard time in the playoffs if the defense continues to struggle. Every game can't be a shootout and the only way they're going to pull off the impossible is if the defense starts pulling their weight.
Bottom Line:
Given they went 15-2 last season and lost a ton of assistant coaches this offseason, some sort of regression is basically inevitable. However, this team deserves to remain the favorite in the NFC North and feels like a safe bet to return to the playoffs for the 3rd straight year.
Green Bay Packers
2024 Record: 11-6 (3rd in NFC North)
Head Coach: Matt LaFluer (7th season)
Notable Additions: CB Nate Hobbs, G Aaron Banks, WR/KR Mecole Hardman
Notable Departures: CB Jaire Alexander, DT T.J Slaton, CB Eric Stokes
Biggest Reason for Excitement: They Drafted a WR in the 1st Round?!?!?!
The Packers have a fascinating organizational philosophy that has spanned several front offices/coaches and endured through major shifts in NFL offenses at this point: Avoid drafting WR's in the 1st round. Historically, there have been plenty of great WR's that were drafted outside of the 1st round (quite a few of them have played for the Packers over the years), but it's still pretty wild for a team to place so little value on a key position. In recent years, fans have been clamoring for them to put this philosophy to the side and have even shown disgust with some of their top selections in recent years-particularly in 2023 when they elected to take Lukas Van Ness while Jaxson Smith-Njgiba and Zay Flowers were both still on the board (they selected Jayden Reed and Dontayvion Wicks later on in the draft, but the jury is still very much out on whether they'll be better than JSN or Flowers while Van Ness has been very quiet through 2 seasons). In late April, a small miracle occurred in front of their own damn fanbase when Roger Goodell stepped to the podium outside of Lambeau Field and announced that they had taken Texas wide receiver Matthew Golden with the 23rd pick of the 2025 NFL Draft. This marked the 1st time the Packers had selected a WR in the 1st round since Javon Walker in 2002 and brought an end to what just might be one of the most absurd droughts in the history of sports.
As for Golden the player, he was a spring workout darling that steadily rose up the WR ranks in this draft class thanks to his inside/outside versatility, YAC ability and high-end speed. He's also yet another Packers receiver who struggles with drops and has questionable play strength, things that will probably both show up at the worst possible time like they have for Reed, Wicks, Christian Watson and Romeo Doubs in recent years. How perfectly he fits the good and bad parts of the current Packers WR mold aside, it's exciting that they actually took a swing at the top of the draft for once. Best of all, fans should get a chance to see what Golden is made of right away as he's projected to start in Week 1 alongside Reed and Doubs.
Biggest Reason for Concern: The Corner Room
The Packers corner room will look a bit different this season as longtime top dog Jaire Alexander was released and Eric Stokes-who logged 32 starts over the past 4 seasons-left for the Raiders in free agency. This isn't quite as drastic of a change as it sounds as Alexander has only appeared in 14 games over the past 2 seasons while Stokes lost his full-time starting role to rookie Javon Bullard once Alexander returned from injury last year, but the implications from it could be. Last year's group-which was primarily anchored by Keisan Nixon and Bullard-contributed to the group finishing a decent but unimposing 13th in pass defense. With ex-Raider Nate Hobbs taking Alexander's normal starting spot and 3rd year pro Carrington Valentine stepping into Stokes' role as the top backup, there's a real chance of them sliding down the rankings.
Nixon and Hobbs aren't bad players at all, but they've both regressed a bit in the past couple of years and I'm not overly confident that they'll be able to improve with the more strenuous set of assignments that they'll presumably be facing in 2025. Bullard is my biggest concern as he was a huge coverage liability last year (85.2 CMP% allowed) and doesn't feel like a natural fit at slot corner (he played safety at Georgia). Strangely enough, Valentine is the guy that I feel best about right now as he's shown pretty well through 2 seasons (14 passes defensed, 2 INT's, 2 forced fumbles,) and has logged enough starts (19) to feel comfortable with his ability to play his role when he's forced into action.
Is this group going to straight up stink? Probably not. Hell, they might even end up being better than at least 2 of the teams in their division. However, there's not a single guy that is reliable enough to be trusted to be solid for 17 games and in a conference that boasts so much receiving talent, that's reason enough to have some pause about this team's prospects for 2025.
Key to Reaching Their Ceiling: Jordan Love Becoming More Consistent
Assessing Jordan Love is a good time because he hasn't played enough to get a real sense of what he's about as a player. We were handed a bit of a clearer picture during his 2nd season as a starter as he was more erratic than he was during his 1st season, especially from an accuracy and decision-making standpoint. These are of course the two areas where Love has struggled the most throughout his football life, they were just more pronounced and backbreaking in 2024 even if the raw numbers don't fully bear that out (his completion percentage only dropped 1.1% to 63.1% from 2023 to 2024 and his 11 INT's thrown matched 2023, although it did come on 154 fewer passing attempts in 2 fewer games). What makes this decline particularly odd is that it came alongside an improved rushing attack led by workhorse Josh Jacobs in his 1st season with the Packers, which theoretically should have taken pressure off him but instead made him a bit more jumpy.
I could be completely off base, but I believe what we're witnessing here is the downside of him sitting behind Aaron Rodgers for 2 years. Somebody with the weaknesses that Love possesses can't improve solely through simulations in practice or in the film room, he needs live game action to figure how to handle pressure and master the timing with his receivers. The good news is that Love is still young (he turns 27 in November) and the problems with his game can be corrected with time. It took Josh Allen-who has a similar athletic profile as Love-a few years to fix his accuracy woes and cut down on his boneheaded decisions too and Love seems to have the coaching in place and proper mindset to make a similar big leap in his 3rd year as a starter. If Love can indeed become a more consistent, reliable playmaker this year, the Packers could be a real problem come playoff time.
Bottom Line:
While they should once again be solid, Jordan Love and the back end of the defense should ultimately dictate whether or not they can be more than that.
Minnesota Vikings
2024 Record: 14-3 (2nd in NFC North)
Head Coach: Kevin O'Connell (4th season)
Notable Additions: G Will Fries, DE Jonathan Allen, DE Javon Hargarve
Notable Departures: QB Sam Darnold, S Camryn Bynum, T Cam Robinson
Biggest Reason for Excitement: They Aggressively Addressed Their Biggest Issues During the Offseason
Over the course of just 8 horrific days, the Vikings went from 14-2 with a chance of clinching the #1 seed in a Week 18 matchup versus the Lions for the NFC North crown to being eliminated in the Wild Card Round by the Rams in embarrassing fashion. Motivated by how astoundingly poorly they played in their final 2 games of the season, GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah locked the fuck in and promptly addressed most of their biggest needs during offseason. He started with the fortification of the interior line that got undressed by the Lions and Rams' interior pass rushes in those fateful final games by cutting ties with their failed draft picks Ed Ingram and Garrett Bradbury and replacing them with sturdier vets Will Fries and Ryan Kelly. They also selected Donovan Jackson out of Ohio State in the 1st round of the draft, who is expected to replace Blake Brendel at LG.
Next, they pounced on a pair of veteran interior defensive lineman who were released at the start of the new league year in Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave. While both of them are coming off down years with the Commanders and 49ers respectively, they're in a good spot to make an impact playing alongside an excellent edge rusher group (Jonathan Greenard, Andrew Van Ginkel, Dallas Turner) and athletic starting linebacker duo (Blake Cashman, Ivan Pace Jr.) in Brian Flores' blitz-happy system.
Lastly, they went out and bolstered their RB depth by bringing in Jordan Mason. While Mason is actually even more injury-prone than their current starter Aaron Jones, he's a full-blown burner of a back that has a more complete skill set than their returning speedster Ty Chandler and should make for a nice complement to the precise, shifty Jones.
Kudos to Adofo-Mensah for not standing pat following a season that was mostly wildly successful for them. He was hamstrung by having very little draft capital to work with (their next pick after Jackson wasn't until the 4th round and they only ended up making 5 picks total) and some cap restrictions to work through after handing out so many big deals in past year or so (Justin Jefferson, Christian Darrisaw, Byron Murphy, Aaron Jones, Greenard, Van Ginkel, Cashman) and still found a way to make bold, necessary moves without overextending themselves to the point where they're unable to further bolster their squad in upcoming seasons.
Biggest Reason for Concern: Relying on J.J. McCarthy to Start Right Away
Letting Sam Darnold go was a difficult but easily justifiable decision for the Vikings to make. He filled the stopgap role better than anyone could've ever hoped he could with his Pro Bowl-caliber campaign (4,312 YDS/35 TD's/12 INT's/66.2 CMP%/102.5 QBR), and those final 2 games displayed an alarming portal into the bad habits he slips back into when things fall apart around him. The downside to Darnold's departure for the Vikings in the short team at least is that it thrusts J.J. McCarthy into the starting role right away.
For those who forgot, McCarthy was believed to be in a strong position to win the starting job in camp a year ago before he tore his meniscus in the preseason opener and went on season-ending IR. While there's no doubt that Kevin O'Connell can put McCarthy in a position to succeed from the jump, especially given McCarthy's reputation of being a game manager above all else, it does seem a little bit reckless to throw a kid whose never been played in a real NFL game out there Week 1 after he's spent much of the past 12 months focused on rehabbing his knee. We've seen how overwhelmed a lot of young QB's look when they first step onto an NFL field, now imagine how much those jitters can intensify when you haven't played in a real football game of any kind for almost 2 full years. McCarthy has a reputation of being a good leader and kind of a hardo, but there's no evidence those qualities will be able to get him over this enormous hurdle. While having him sit for the opening 3-5 weeks of the season to further observe how the game functions at this level would probably be ideal for all parties involved, it doesn't seem overly likely that O'Connell would be cool with handing the ball over to wild gunslinger Sam Howell if McCarthy is good to go medically for Week 1. He's set to face the Bears, Falcons, Bengals, Steelers and Browns before their Week 6 bye, which isn't an overly daunting stretch by any means, so the kid will at least have a fair chance to hit the ground running to start his pro career.
Key to Reaching Their Ceiling: Having Another Corner Emerge Alongside Byron Murphy
Over the past 2 seasons with the Vikings, Byron Murphy has turned into the reliable ballhawking corner that he never quite was on a consistent basis during his inaugural 4 seasons with the Cardinals. Murphy's emergence as a top corner earned him a new 3-year deal this offseason and filled a key hole on a Vikings secondary that has had its share of struggles of late. As for the rest of their corner room, it remains a huge steaming mess. One of the biggest reasons their pass defense was so porous last year (30th in the NFL) was due to having to rely on an over-the-hill Stephon Gilmore and journeyman Shaq Griffin to play a ton of reps. Both of those guys were on 1-year deals and didn't return to the team for the 2025 season. Unfortunately, their replacements may not be any better.
Given their limited draft capital and a poor free agent market for #2/3 corners, the Vikings had to once again throw darts to fill out their corner depth chart. The 3 players they landed on were Isaiah Rodgers, Jeff Okudah and Tavierre Thomas. Rodgers had a decent year as a rotational piece/spot starter for the Eagles last year, especially considering he was out of football for a full year after serving a gambling suspension that got him axed from the Colts. He's currently projected to start on the outside, which is a ballsy proposition considering that he's only had 1 prolonged stint as an entrenched starter for his entire career (9 games for the Colts back in 2022).
Fellow projected starter Okudah is far less interesting than Rodgers as he's less of an enigma with some upside and more of a full-blown reclamation project at this stage of his career. The 3rd pick in the 2020 draft has failed to become a tiny fraction of the player he was projected to be when he came out of Ohio State through an initial 5 NFL seasons that have been marred by poor play and injuries, but the small flashes of potential he's shown, and his elite college pedigree will cause teams in the analytics-era to keep kicking the tires on him until he finally sticks or ages out of getting opportunities (we're probably about 2-3 years away from the latter occurring if he falters here).
Thomas falls somewhere between Rodgers and Okudah on the Risk Appeal Meter as he had a solid season with the Texans in 2021 but hasn't gotten many reps since then. It wouldn't surprise me at all if he found his way onto the field and became the best of this trio by the end of the year.
No matter the path or who ends up doing it (returning Vikings Mekhi Blackmon and Dwight McGlothern should also be in the mix for snaps, if not a starting job), they just desperately need somebody to show up alongside Murphy. This division is shaping up to be an absolute bloodbath once again and something as seemingly small as having another viable corner on the roster could pay huge dividends for the Vikings standing in the NFC North hierarchy.
Bottom Line:
As much as I believe in Kevin O'Connell's ability as a coach, I'm shaky enough on J.J. McCarthy's odds of being an effective starter and their pass defense to pick them to finish last in this tough division as of right now.
Predicted Standings:
1.Detroit Lions (12-5)
2.Chicago Bears (11-6)
3.Green Bay Packers (10-7)
4.Minnesota Vikings (7-10)
