Green Bay Packers
We still think we’re the team to beat in the NFC North, but we aren’t oblivious to defensive concerns that could de-rail our efforts to get back to the Super Bowl following the 2012 campaign. Aaron Rodgers isn’t going to be able to win every game for us on his own. He needs help from our defense which too often gave up large sums of points to the opposition. With some tweaks here and there, we should be ready to make another run at bringing another trophy home.
Detroit Lions
We honestly believe we’re ready to take the NFC down, not just the Packers. We have a dominant front four on defense along with one of the most explosive offenses in the NFL. If Matthew Stafford can stay healthy again in 2012, with some help from Calvin Johnson of course, there’s no reason we can’t force every team we play into a shootout, and we’re very, very good at winning shootouts.
Chicago Bears
We still believe Jay Cutler is a good offensive line away from being one of the league’s best quarterbacks, and we’re doing our best to give him the protection and receivers he needs. That was also why we brought in Brandon Marshall. Hopefully bringing Cutler and Marshall back together will produce big numbers from both players and allow our offense to catch up with our defense’s dominance.
Minnesota Vikings
There’s a lot of questions surrounding our team right now. Was Leslie Frazier the right pick to replace Brad Childress? Can Adrian Peterson ever get back to the dominate form he was before his knee injury? Is Christian Ponder really our quarterback of the future? We have to be patient on all fronts. We’re in one of the toughest divisions in football, and we’re probably not good enough to make the playoffs in 2012. Still, we’re looking for improvement more than results. If we can get that improvement we’re looking for, results will be just around the corner.
