NFC NORTH 2020 PREVIEW

BY ADAM GREENE

Here’s a fun fact for you. Since the inception of the NFC North in 2002, the Detroit Lions have never once won it. The Green Bay Packers are the undisputed Kings of the North, claiming 10 out of a possible 18 division titles.

After the Pack, you might be shocked to learn that the Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings are both tied at four apiece and all three of those teams have passed the requisite caps and T-shirts around for the last three seasons.

For the Lions, you have to go all the way back to the old NFC Central and 1993 for the last time they claimed the division championship. Could this be the year that all changes and they put 27 years of futility in the rearview?

Nope. But here’s how I think the NFC North will play out.

GREEN BAY PACKERS (11-5, Division Champion)

Aaron Rodgers opined as their season ended in another lackluster performance in the NFC Championship game that his Super Bowl window wasn’t closed. If he’s right, it’s certainly down to just a crack and there’s no reason to waste the opportunity of playing for an actual NFL-caliber playcaller in Matt LaFleur for a second season.

What the Pack was able to do in LaFleur’s first season is significantly separate themselves from the rest of the NFC North. I don’t see that changing in 2020, in spite of losses along the offensive line.

Green Bay with Rodgers is like the Seattle Seahawks with Russell Wilson. As long as he’s healthy and slinging it, they’re a danger to win them all. Their only stumbling block is outside their division, where they face off against the New Orleans Saints, Atlanta Falcons, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Houston Texans, San Francisco 49ers, Indianapolis Colts, Philadelphia Eagles and Tennessee Titans. They’ll claim the division title, but they won’t win 13 games with that slate ahead of them.

MINNESOTA VIKINGS (9-7)

Here’s a fun little stat for you. Those 10 wins the Vikings put up with Kirk Cousins as quarterback was the first double-digit win total of his entire career. He’s gone 9-7 once as a starter with Washington back in 2015 and 8-7-1 twice (which doesn’t seem like it should be possible) with that same Washington team in 2016 and with Minnesota in 2018.

Now he’s expected to do it again in spite of losing his offensive coordinator, Kevin Stefanski, to Cleveland Browns as their new head coach and with his second best receiver, Stefon Diggs, traded away to the Buffalo Bills. All the while facing the exact same monster schedule the Packers are playing I listed above. I don’t see it happening.

CHICAGO BEARS (8-8)

This projection is all dependent on how quickly Matt Nagy can convince himself to hand the keys to Nick Foles at quarterback. With no preseason games, it’ll have to be done in practice and since they open with two winnable games against the Lions and New York Giants. The last thing you want to do is let Mitchell Trubisky pick up those wins and force you to keep him under center over the next three games, against the Atlanta Falcons, Colts and Bucs.

Chicago will be significantly more competitive and develop some of the weapons they’ve acquired over the last couple of years on offense, but are a year away from a winning record.

DETROIT LIONS (7-9)

Like my Bears prediction, this is contingent on a quarterback, specifically the health of Matthew Stafford. His head coach, Matt Patricia, should be fired before the season is over, but Stafford himself has the talent to keep this team in pretty much every game. He just doesn’t have the help around him, on the field or sidelines, to make wins regularly happen.

If Stafford does go down again, the Lions will compete with the Giants to be the worst team in football, a hard pill to swallow for one of only two NFL franchises in history to go 0-16.

Follow our BetOnline Twitter account for the latest sports news and betting odds, and stay tuned on the Instagram feed for more good information too.