NFC North Draft Review (2025)

[Dantés]

Here are my thoughts. Share yours.

Packers:

1.23-- M. Golden, WR, UT
2.54-- A. Belton, OL, NCSU
3.87-- S. Williams, WR, TCU
4.124-- B. Sorrell, DE, UT
5.159-- C. Oliver, DPR, OKST
6.198-- W. Brinson, DT, UGA
7.237-- M. Robinson, CB, TUL
7.250-- J. Williams, OL, CIN

Overall: I don't think this draft was a homerun, but I am pretty happy with the results. They need to do more to shore up the depth at DT and CB, but that's not an insurmountable challenge, given that starters are in place. They needed speed on offense and they got that in spades. They also did a good job assuring that they will be able to better handle injuries along the offensive line. The pass rush has some more juice in the room as well.

Bears:

1.10-- C. Loveland, TE, MICH
2.39-- L. Burden, WR, MIZZ
2.56-- O. Trapilo, OT, BC
2.62-- S. Turner, DT, SC
4.132-- R. Hyppolite, LB, MAR
5.148-- Z. Frazier, CB, UTSA
5.195-- L. Newman, OL, MSU
7.233-- K. Monangai, RB, RUT

Overall: I love this class for the Bears. Which is to say, it was a bad draft. Their best pick was Shemar Turner at #62-- good interior pass rusher, good value, good pick. Other than that, I'm not down with any of this. Loveland is a great TE prospect, but taking a TE in the top 10 is incredibly stupid. The value is bad and the track record is a disaster-- Brock Bowers is fresh in people's minds, but I would argue that you have to go back to 2006 to find the last TE who really paid off for the team that drafted him (Vernon Davis). Luther Burden is, on film, a gadget who, by all accounts, lacks the work ethic to develop. Trapilo is over 6'8" at tackle, which I generally consider to be a bad bet. The Bears had every opportunity to upgrade at RB and didn't. They also remain shallow at DE, safety, and along the iOL.

Vikings:

1.24-- D. Jackson, OL, OSU
3.102-- T. Felton, WR, MAR
5.139-- T. Ingram-Dawkins, DL, UGA
6.201-- K. King, LB, PSU
6.202-- G. Bartholomew, TE, PITT

Overall: This class is going to be a big nothingburger for Minny. I don't mind the player at 24-- a good iOL starter with some OT versatility; that's fine. But I doubt anyone else in the class makes a real impact for them in 2025 and perhaps at any point. The real reason this was a terrible draft is that they didn't have any draft capital and their foolish GM decided he would rather stick and pick a solid guard than drop down and recoup picks. This is what happens when you trade up twice in round one to land two players who don't provide much real impact to your roster.

Lions:

1.28-- T. Williams, DT, OSU
2.57-- T. Ratledge, G, UGA
3.70-- I. TeSlaa, WR, ARK
5.171-- M. Frazier, OL, LSU
6.196-- A. Hassenein, DE, BSU
7.230-- D. Jackson, S, UGA
7.244-- D. Lovett, WR, UGA

Overall: This class is a doubling down on what DET is already good at while ignoring their weaknesses. The Lions add Williams, a good run-stuffer, to a DT room that was already pretty good. They added two guards to compete with Christian Mahogany. They added two slot weapons to a team with Amon-Ra St. Brown. Meanwhile, they really need pass rush and better boundary wide receivers and they passed entirely.

But generally, the Lions are high on their own success. They swapped a 4th for a 7th to move up 3 spots for a guard. They traded two future 3rd round picks to move from 102 to 70 and take a big slot who had 900 yards and 5 TD's in two years of playing D-1 football. They also traded extra capital to move up to get Frazier. When you trade up constantly, it comes back to bite you. Because every team has classes that fail to develop, and all that future capital you blow on trade ups is what can dig you out of the hole.

Overall, I think Detroit has bad process and I don't think this class is going to have any real impact on making them a stronger football team.

The bottom line is that the Packers had the best draft in the division by a strong margin. The love affair with the Bears' offseason is going to continue, but it won't materialize on the field.

 

[Dantés]

So the Lions spent...

-One 2nd round pick
-Three 3rd round picks
-One 4th round pick

On...

-Tate Ratledge, G, UGA
-Isaac TeSlaa, WR, ARK
-Two 6th round picks
-One 7th round pick

 

[Thirteen Below]

The real reason this was a terrible draft is that they didn't have any draft capital and their foolish GM decided he would rather stick and pick a solid guard than drop down and recoup picks. This is what happens when you trade up twice in round one to land two players who don't provide much real impact to your roster.

I remember a lot of us instantly saw this coming on the first night of last year's draft when those idiots traded 7 picks for 3 in return, gutting the middle portion of their 2024 draft.

I was delighted to see it at the time, and I knew I would be equally delighted this year when the cows came home to roost. Or whatever.

Napoleon often said, never interfere with your enemy when he is making a mistake. That phrase comes to mind every year when I am watching the Vikings and the Bears run their drafts.

I love this class for the Bears. Which is to say, it was a bad draft

Poles strikes again. I wonder where Caleb has been all weekend? How come he's not here bragging about how many Super Bowls they're going to win this year?

Edit: I just noticed that SI graded our draft as the worst in the division, C+. Bears and Lions got B-, and the Vikings got C+.

Really hard to take that crap seriously. I like your assessment a lot better.

 

[Dantés]

I remember a lot of us instantly saw this coming on the first night of last year's draft when those idiots traded 7 picks for 3 in return, gutting the middle portion of their 2024 draft.

I was delighted to see it at the time, and I knew I would be equally delighted this year when the cows came home to roost. Or whatever.

Napoleon often said, never interfere with your enemy when he is making a mistake. That phrase comes to mind every year when I am watching the Vikings and the Bears run their drafts.




Poles strikes again. I wonder where Caleb has been all weekend? How come he's not here bragging about how many Super Bowls they're going to win this year?

What makes it worse is that they don't seem too enamored with McCarthy.

 

[Thirteen Below]

What makes it worse is that they don't seem too enamored with McCarthy.

Yeh, I'm really curious about whatever is going on there. It's not like they have any tape to evaluate, is it possible there was more to the knee injury than they let on? It wasn't that serious an injury; just a meniscus.

 

[Dantés]

Yeh, I'm really curious about whatever is going on there. It's not like they have any tape to evaluate, is it possible there was more to the knee injury than they let on? It wasn't that serious an injury; just a meniscus.

The rumor that I've heard is that there was a rift last year between their GM and O'Connell and that the GM wanted McCarthy and O'Connell didn't.

The double trade up lends credence to that report. Teams often do that when they're divided and they decide to try and eat their cake and have it too.

 

[Thirteen Below]

The rumor that I've heard is that there was a rift last year between their GM and O'Connell and that the GM wanted McCarthy and O'Connell didn't.

That's right, I'd completely forgotten that. I remember now that the issue resurfaced when they were debating whether to resign Darnold.

The Vikings have made some uncharacteristically good moves the last few years, but you can still count on them to do a lot of Minnesota-type crap.

 

[OldSchool101]

The Packers really had the benefit of ignoring TE, RB, QB which allowed us to focus intently on a couple key areas. A big part of that focus was allowed with 35 Draft selections across 2022,23,24. 13 of those recently Drafted players and positions were Day1-2 selections.

Matthew Golden
This really was unexpected. I chose WR Egbuka in my draft primarily because I was sold he was the next best WR past Mac and Golden. I just assumed 75% chance those 2 were Gone. Getting Golden I think is a similar talent but actually a better fit here in GB. We just brought in an upgrade to Christian imo. If both get on the field this year? With Reed behind them and potentially Doubs and Kraft? Plus Musgrave and Wicks as a rotational effect?
this backfield and OL? We really should elevate on paper to Top 5-7 imo and I’m being conservative.

LT, Anthony Belton
That guy is actually impressive. He reminds me of that guy TN drafted a few years ago at OL that just mauls people. If he plays Guard I think he’s got potential to be Elgton Good or better and I mean that. If he plays LT, within a season I could see him taking over for Walker and possibly brings an upgrade. He looks that good on film. After signing 49er Aaron Banks, then drafting Belton and potentially having Morgan back? Wow! that’s an impressive lineup and with Tom at RT and Elgton at Center? This on paper looks incredible.

 

[Thirteen Below]

Loveland is a great TE prospect, but taking a TE in the top 10 is incredibly stupid.

Didn't we take Bubba Franks at #10 in 2000? We at least got a few good years out of him, he went to 2 or 3 Pro Bowls I think.

But yeah, that is the exception. Even Eifert wasn't picked until #21, IIRC.

 

[rmontro]

Overall: This class is a doubling down on what DET is already good at while ignoring their weaknesses.

Maybe, but arguably their failure last year in the playoffs was because of injuries, not necessarily team composition.

 

[OldSchool101]

Savion Williams.

He’s such a different selection because he’s really more a Combo player in the Mold of a taller version of our former Ty Montgomery. That is not an insult I liked Ty in his prime he was actually a well rounded football player. I think Savion has a much higher ceiling though. Savion matches or bests every one of Ty athletic traits. I Recall Ty jumped an Elite 40.5 vertical. Savion? jumped 41”. Savion is a superior athlete to Ty and 4” taller. I don’t see how he can fail unless we allow him to. He’s a physically gifted specimen and he moves like a Day 1 athlete, but just isn’t refined yet. If he can be put in the correct role and be more refined he could be an absolute steal.

This guy moves smooth for 222lb an 6’4”. He can KR. He can play RB. He can play WR. Heck he could probably play TE if he put on 10 pounds. He’d be fast as heck as a Flex TE if he added to 230-235lb. At WVA he ran a 4.38 Forty-Yard and 1.52 Ten-yard split with a 41.0 Vertical, with a 6.97 shuttle at 6’3.7” X 221lb
Excuse my French but holy crap!

 

[Calebs Revenge]

I remember a lot of us instantly saw this coming on the first night of last year's draft when those idiots traded 7 picks for 3 in return, gutting the middle portion of their 2024 draft.

I was delighted to see it at the time, and I knew I would be equally delighted this year when the cows came home to roost. Or whatever.

Napoleon often said, never interfere with your enemy when he is making a mistake. That phrase comes to mind every year when I am watching the Vikings and the Bears run their drafts.




Poles strikes again. I wonder where Caleb has been all weekend? How come he's not here bragging about how many Super Bowls they're going to win this year?

Edit: I just noticed that SI graded our draft as the worst in the division, C+. Bears and Lions got B-, and the Vikings got C+.

Really hard to take that crap seriously. I like your assessment a lot better.

The fact that you think that Cortland Loveland was a bad pic, I guess just makes me respect your opinion a lot less.....
It's pretty well documented that phones were ringing off the hook with teams trying to trade up inside the top 10 so that they could grab this mediocre tight end prospect as you call him....
I know people say the Penn State guy is better, but I disagree and apparently so did a lot of other people because the phones stopped ringing once Loveland was off the board. The calls did not continue for the Penn State guy.......

Trust me, I have no doubt or expectation that anybody here thinks the Bears are going to get better or do good things. It goes against the fiber of your very beings..... that said we are a high-performance car just like every other team in the NFL except we were running a V6 Honda engine, while everybody else is using stock turbo charged twin V8 engines.... I'm not a car guy. I'm just just trying to make an example......
By inserting Ben Johnson oh and, here's this for crazy.......film sessions between our quarterback/offensive team with the OC and now our HC too....
And I get it.....if my enemy had four pics by 62.....(plus #1 last year) almost before we had made two picks by 54(iirc) I'd hate all over their 3 new 2nd rounders and the TE that was focal point on Jim Harbaughs Championship team............. too‍.....

 

[Dantés]

The fact that you think that Cortland Loveland was a bad pic, I guess just makes me respect your opinion a lot less.....
It's pretty well documented that phones were ringing off the hook with teams trying to trade up inside the top 10 so that they could grab this mediocre tight end prospect as you call him....
I know people say the Penn State guy is better, but I disagree and apparently so did a lot of other people because the phones stopped ringing once Loveland was off the board. The calls did not continue for the Penn State guy.......

Trust me, I have no doubt or expectation that anybody here thinks the Bears are going to get better or do good things. It goes against the fiber of your very beings..... that said we are a high-performance car just like every other team in the NFL except we were running a V6 Honda engine, while everybody else is using stock turbo charged twin V8 engines.... I'm not a car guy. I'm just just trying to make an example......
By inserting Ben Johnson oh and, here's this for crazy.......film sessions between our quarterback/offensive team with the OC and now our HC too....
And I get it.....if my enemy had four pics by 62.....(plus #1 last year) almost before we had made two picks by 54(iirc) I'd hate all over their 3 new 2nd rounders and the TE that was focal point on Jim Harbaughs Championship team............. too‍.....

First Round Tight Ends since 2010:

-Jermaine Gresham, 2010, #21, Bengals: Decent for 3 seasons, but fell off, no second contract with CIN, and they were drafting another Rd 1 TE 3 years later.
-Tyler Eifert, 2013, #21, Bengals: Valuable player by year 3, but health never allowed him to really excel thereafter.
-Eric Ebron, 2014, #10, Lions: A useful player seasons 2-4, but no second contract with the Lions.
-O.J. Howard, 2017, #19, Bucs: Never more than a role-player.
-Evan Engram, 2017, #23, Giants: A lot of empty calorie yardage for the Giants with no second contract.
-David Njoku, 2017, #29, Browns: Took him until year 6 to become a consistently useful player.
-Hayden Hurst, 2018, #25, Ravens: Traded after two lackluster seasons.
-T.J. Hockenson, 2019, #8, Lions: Had a couple decent seasons before getting traded for way less than his original pick value.
-Noah Fant, 2019, #20, Vikings: Three decent receiving seasons and then traded.
-Kyle Pitts, 2021, #4, Falcons: 1K yard, 1 TD rookie season that he hasn't been able to follow up.
-Dalton Kincaid, 2023, #25, Bills: Two mediocre seasons as complementary receiving weapon.
-Brock Bowers, 2024, #13, Raiders: Stellar rookie season.

Out of 12 picks going back the last 15 drafts, you're talking about one guy who appears to have paid off his draft slot (Bowers). The rest of the list is full of mediocre production and most of them didn't see a second contract with the team that drafted them.

Clearly the league and the draft industry is bad at identifying TE talent in round one because the hit rate is atrocious (8.3%).

So if you want to find comfort in stories about attempted trade-ups, by all means do so. But draft history would say Loveland's odds of paying off that draft capital are terrible.

 

[Calebs Revenge]

That's all good and well.....none of them are Loveland....I don't believe Ben Johnson coached any of them.
I'd look at the TE numbers that were produced in Ben's offense the last 4 years. I'd say theyll be above average and with Kmet and Loveland it's a great 1-2 punch at TE. I think you'll see them used how Gronk and Hernandez were used in NE.
jmho........

 

[Dantés]

That's all good and well.....none of them are Loveland....I don't believe Ben Johnson coached any of them.
I'd look at the TE numbers that were produced in Ben's offense the last 4 years. I'd say theyll be above average and with Kmet and Loveland it's a great 1-2 punch at TE. I think you'll see them used how Gronk and Hernandez were used in NE.
jmho........

You believe in the player and the coach. That's great. I would also be hopeful if I was in your position.

But it makes no sense to discount the opinions of people who don't like the Loveland pick based on some puff pieces about phone calls when the hard fact is that taking TE's high in the draft has been a really bad bet. The Lions took a TE at #8 overall while Johnson was the TE Coach. He ended his rookie season with 367 yards and 2 touchdowns and they ended up trading him for pennies on the dollar relative to the 8th overall pick investment.

By the way, in the two full years that Gronkowski and Hernandez were playing together, they amassed 3,346 combined yards and 40 combined touchdowns. That comp has become such a cliche. Every time a fan of a team likes two of their tight ends, they throw it out there. Like how 7,000 small running backs have been compared to Darren Sproles in the last 15 years.

 

[Thirteen Below]

The fact that you think that Cortland Loveland was a bad pic, I guess just makes me respect your opinion a lot less.....

What are you even talking about? Who are you talking to?

Do you just have some constant imaginary conversation in your head where everyone is picking on the Bears? I have never said a single word here about Loveland and whether I thought he was a good or bad pick; the closest I've ever come was on Day Three of the draft, when I mentioned that taking a TE in the top ten is unusual.

Trust me, I have no doubt or expectation that anybody here thinks the Bears are going to get better or do good things. It goes against the fiber of your very beings.....

Again... where are you getting this? You're projecting again; we're not a bunch of blind homers - we're a pretty rational, realistic bunch here.

My sense is that the majority of the cheeseheads here think the Bears are almost certain to get better, and I'm one of them - said it a number of times. And replacing Eberflus with Johnson is the smartest thing Poles has done so far (which isn't saying much, but still...). Johnson may be the closest thing you could possibly find to a perfect coach for Williams.

All we're saying is that when a team has sucked as bad as Chicago has for as long as Chicago has sucked, it's going to take them a while to become a truly good team. Johnson has a massive task ahead of him in his first year as a head coach; he needs to change the fundamental organizational culture of an entire team - one of the most dysfunctional teams in the NFL.

Can he do it? Maybe. But until he proves he can, the Bears. Still. Suck.

 

[Calebs Revenge]

What are you even talking about? Who are you talking to?

Do you just have some constant imaginary conversation in your head where everyone is picking on the Bears? I have never said a single word here about Loveland and whether I thought he was a good or bad pick; the closest I've ever come was on Day Three of the draft, when I mentioned that taking a TE in the top ten is unusual.



Again... where are you getting this? You're projecting again; we're not a bunch of blind homers - we're a pretty rational, realistic bunch here.

My sense is that the majority of the cheeseheads here think the Bears are almost certain to get better, and I'm one of them - said it a number of times. And replacing Eberflus with Johnson is the smartest thing Poles has done so far (which isn't saying much, but still...). Johnson may be the closest thing you could possibly find to a perfect coach for Williams.

All we're saying is that when a team has sucked as bad as Chicago has for as long as Chicago has sucked, it's going to take them a while to become a truly good team. Johnson has a massive task ahead of him in his first year as a head coach; he needs to change the fundamental organizational culture of an entire team - one of the most dysfunctional teams in the NFL.

Can he do it? Maybe. But until he proves he can, the Bears. Still. Suck.

Ok

 

[Calebs Revenge]

And I obviously made a mistake. I meant to quote Dante's but then you did in the later post agree with everything he said so ergo you think Loveland is not a good pic either and I'm arguing that tight end taking it any point in the past has absolutely nothing to do with what is going to do in his career.
That's all.

 

[Calebs Revenge]

And also, did you really just ask a Bears fan on a Green Bay Packers message board if it's imaginary that people here are talking bad about the Bears....
Hahahhahahahhajajahahjjaa
I'm not trying to pick a fight buddy, but come on.
I've been here every week for about a solid year now maybe longer so never been suspended don't cause fights. I just like to chitchat about football and arguing with Bears fans is nonproductive and kind of silly.
I'd much rather have discussions with you fine folks!!!!!
Carry on