Is the nfc north getting worse?

[ivo610]

with the mass exodus of name talent in the nfc north being traded or likely to leave, I gotta ask, are we as a division getting worse?

 

[Raptorman]

No. You think of the talent that is leaving now. But what about the talent coming in? We don't know that yet.

 

[HardRightEdge]

If Minnesota gets Peterson back and with Bridgewater in year 2, they should be improved, but mostly Peterson is the big "if". Chicago is a mess with the Cutler situation and a haphazard defense...they're in rebuilding mode. Detroit's D-Line, the core of the team, is seeing their top 3 DTs heading to free agency barring some last minute deals, without a ton of cap to work with.

 

[TJV]

I agree it’s too early to tell. The Lions and Vikings are both going into the second year with new HCs so their staffs are more familiar with the players and visa versa. They should be adding talent that fits their systems. Both teams could improve from last season. OTOH, the Bears look like they’re undergoing a rebuilding project with Fox not endorsing Cutler and jettisoning Marshal for a 5th rounder. They’ve got a lot of work to do, particularly on the D side of the ball. I won’t be surprised to see them occupy the division cellar again.

 

[NelsonsLongCatch]

The Bears are in rebuilding mode and might not be good for 2 or 3 years. The team will be without Briggs and Marshall this year. Jay is still Jay. The defense needs 8 players just to be average.

The Lions are in salary cap hell. The team might lose the second best defensive lineman in the league (who is in his prime). Matthew Stafford is good enough to get a team to the playoffs, but not good enough to win a Super Bowl.

The Vikings are the wild card. If Bridgewater turns out to be a good quarterback, he improves the team immensely. The Vikings still need help along the offensive line and on defense, but they might be the team to compete with the Packers for NFC North supremacy for the next few years.

 

[adambr2]

The Bears are in rebuilding mode and might not be good for 2 or 3 years. The team will be without Briggs and Marshall this year. Jay is still Jay. The defense needs 8 players just to be average.

The Lions are in salary cap hell. The team might lose the second best defensive lineman in the league (who is in his prime). Matthew Stafford is good enough to get a team to the playoffs, but not good enough to win a Super Bowl.

The Vikings are the wild card. If Bridgewater turns out to be a good quarterback, he improves the team immensely. The Vikings still need help along the offensive line and on defense, but they might be the team to compete with the Packers for NFC North supremacy for the next few years.

Pretty much my thoughts. Bears are destined for last. Depending on what happens with AP, the Vikings may be improved, probably enough to challenge the Lions for 2nd, while I still think we have a pretty strong grip on the division.

 

[ivo610]

Bears lose Marshall, lions lose their 3 best D likemen, packers lose the best slot WR in the league, vikes lose arguably the best rb in the league.

That's a ton of talent and I don't see much coming in. Obviously some will develop from this draft and last.

 

[King of Jeans]

I don't think it will be as bad as last year. I think detroit will get slightly worse but minnesota and chicago will get slightly better.

 

[XPack]

Tbh, the only group arguably better than us is NFC West. I don't think we can argue better or worse season by season. If there's any comparison over past 5 years then maybe we can have a conclusion...

 

[HardRightEdge]

The Bears have traded Marshall to the Jets for a 5th. round pick. There's a divisional step backward for you. Of course the Bears could sign Cobb, as the Chicago internets are proposing, begging the question, "backward for whom"?

 

[Voltron]

Its always hard to say if the North is getting soft. Things can change quickly in the NFl year to year, hence why so few teams win back to back superbowls. And things can change quickly with in a season, Packers did notnhave the greatest start and sudddenly improved after the RELAX statement, and even with in a game. I still hurting from that Seattle lose. It should have been Green Bay...

 

[Deleted member 6794]

Bears lose Marshall, lions lose their 3 best D likemen, packers lose the best slot WR in the league, vikes lose arguably the best rb in the league.

That's a ton of talent and I don't see much coming in. Obviously some will develop from this draft and last.

It's far too early to talk about that. As of now the only guy who has left for another division is Beandon Marshall. We don't have any idea what's going to happen in free agency and the draft.

As I've already posted in another thread I don't get is the love for the Vikings. Their record improved last season mostly because of a weak schedule, they didn't get a single win vs. a team with a winning record. In addition I wasn't that impressed with Bridgewater.

 

[TJV]

As I've already posted in another thread I don't get is the love for the Vikings. Their record improved last season mostly because of a weak schedule, they didn't get a single win vs. a team with a winning record. In addition I wasn't that impressed with Bridgewater.

Weak schedule or not their D improved from the worst in points surrendered in '13 to 11th in the regular season. I wasn't impressed with Bridgewater either but that was his rookie season and in addition to the improvement that may come in his second year, any QB will look better with AP in the backfield. (Caveat: I have no love for the Vikings.)

 

[Deleted member 6794]

Weak schedule or not their D improved from the worst in points surrendered in '13 to 11th in the regular season. I wasn't impressed with Bridgewater either but that was his rookie season and in addition to the improvement that may come in his second year, any QB will look better with AP in the backfield. (Caveat: I have no love for the Vikings.)

I agree that their defense improved but that was my expectation after they hired Zimmer. In recent years second year QBs didn't make significant improvements so will see what happens with Bridgewater. In addition it's not a sure thing Peterson will be back with the Vikings.

 

[PackerDNA]

Overall, the Lions have the most talent of the other three teams in the North, but they have holes. The other two are works in progress. Well, the Vikings are ; the Bears may be in the process of blowing things up and starting over.

 

[Carl]

The Bears have traded Marshall to the Jets for a 5th. round pick. There's a divisional step backward for you. Of course the Bears could sign Cobb, as the Chicago internets are proposing, begging the question, "backward for whom"?

The Bears need to rebuild and make their cap situation better. They wouldn't be a good team anyway with Cobb so he would just slow down the rebuild with the money given to him.

 

[Deleted member 6794]

The Bears need to rebuild and make their cap situation better. They wouldn't be a good team anyway with Cobb so he would just slow down the rebuild with the money given to him.

The Bears have approximately the same amount of cap space than the Packers. Aside of the Cutler deal they don't have a lot of issues with the cap. I agree they need a lot of pieces to be competitive again though.

 

[adambr2]

I wonder if they would consider trading up with the Redskins at #5 if Mariota falls that far, since he won't fall past the Jets at #6.

 

[Megatron]

Bears lose Marshall, lions lose their 3 best D likemen, packers lose the best slot WR in the league, vikes lose arguably the best rb in the league.

That's a ton of talent and I don't see much coming in. Obviously some will develop from this draft and last.

The Lions 3 best Dlinemen are hitting FA, that doesn't mean they have "lost" their 3 best Dlinemen, 2 out of the 3 will most certainly be back. It would actually be smart if the Lions let Suh go, because no DT is worth that much money, they'd be much better off spreading it around. Imagine the Lions with Greg Hardy and Terrance Knighton? Suh is a great player, but a lot of people overestimate his value. And the Lions certainly aren't in cap hell, not with 17 million in cap and 15 million in dead money coming off the books next year, plus the cap again going up. They can sign whoever they want and just structure the deals with a bit lower first year salary. It's also interesting to see how good of a QB Stafford will become, he is still only 26 years old, and has had one of the best starts to a career for a QB in league history for the # of games he has started. He hasn't hit his ceiling yet, though I won't pretend to know how high it is. I think the Lions will be at worst the 2nd best team in the division, and they should definitely be better than last year; because they struggled implementing a complicated new offense which obviously won't be a problem again, and they shouldn't suffer a ridiculous amount of injuries again. Most likely anyways.

The Vikings are going to be a pretty good team, I expect them to make quite the leap forward, I think AP will be back.

I think the bears are in for a long period of suckage.

Overall, I think the NFC N is going to be one of the best divisions in the league, possibly the best.

 

[Raptorman]

It's far too early to talk about that. As of now the only guy who has left for another division is Beandon Marshall. We don't have any idea what's going to happen in free agency and the draft.

As I've already posted in another thread I don't get is the love for the Vikings. Their record improved last season mostly because of a weak schedule, they didn't get a single win vs. a team with a winning record. In addition I wasn't that impressed with Bridgewater.

Weak schedule that was the same as the Packers except for two teams. As to Bridgewater. I was playing with some number on Peterson and noticed this. In the 15 games Peterson did not play, the Vikings offense increased the number of point per game at the end of the year. It may not seem like much, but think of it this way. They learned to play without Peterson in the backfield.

1st 5 games they scored 14 points per game.
2nd 5 games they scored 19.6 points per game.
3rd 5 games they scored 24.6 points per game.

 

[ivo610]

This was only meant to be a speculative free agency is upon us thread, how do we shake out?

Obviously when written, none of those guys were gone except Marshall. Lions could resign all 3 and Peterson could finish his career in mn. This is just an overall how is the division looking

 

[Einstein McFly]

Chicago is not only cleaning out their locker room and getting rid their good old players, they're also getting all new coaches and, most importantly, switching to a new defense. Jeffrey isn't a #1 and Forte has to get old at some point. They're going to finish last next year.

The lions are going to be much dimminished without Suh. The vikes may be decent. A lot of it depends on if Kahlil can be competent and Patterson can do anything (remember all the guys on this board who were FURIOUS that TT didn't pick him up?).

 

[Deleted member 6794]

Weak schedule that was the same as the Packers except for two teams.

While that's true the Packers went 4-3 vs. teams against with a record of at least .500 while the Vikings lost all seven of those games.

The Vikings will face 10 teams in 2015 which won at least eight games last season so as long as they don't prove being capable of winning such games I won't think about them as a contender in the North.

 

[Deleted member 6794]

A lot of it depends on if Kahlil can be competent and Patterson can do anything (remember all the guys on this board who were FURIOUS that TT didn't pick him up?).

I really have no idea what you're talking about as there was never a chance during to pick up Adrian Peterson during Thompson's tenure as GM. Peterson hasn't been a free agent since entering the league in 2007.

EDIT: Sorry, forget about what I was posting above. Obviously you weren't talking about Peterson.

 

[adambr2]

I think he's referring to Cordarrelle Patterson.