Four Questions Facing the NFC North

Training camp is arriving across the NFL, and here are four pertinent questions facing the teams in the best division in the league, the North division of the National Football Conference.

Chicago Bears: Can the Ben Johnson/Caleb Williams collaboration take off from day one? The NFC North, in 2025, is not a division the Bears can slow play. If they find themselves hovering around .500 in November, a division title will be far out of reach. Will that mean they can't reach the postseason? No, and a wildcard spot is a far more likely scenario for a club in the first campaign under a new head coach. But this is a better roster than they showed in 2024, and the potential of 2025 should be evident before Halloween.

Minnesota Vikings: Is J.J. McCarthy any good? Recently, at the gym, I saw (with captions) one of these mindless ESPN debate shows arguing who is better, Caleb Williams or J.J. McCarthy. Criticisms of Caleb are fair; his rookie campaign was certainly up and down, which is par for the rookie quarterback course. But McCarthy has never played a single snap of professional football and his performances in amateur football were uninspiring to say the least. Can McCarthy be a frontline starter? Sure. Why not? Is it fair to expect him to be a frontline starter as a "rookie" when he hasn't played football in two years? I can tell you this: I'm shorting the Vikings.

Detroit Lions: Can Dan Campbell stabilize the program? Campbell is a terrific leader and has changed the culture of the Lions organization. (These ain't the Wayne Fontes Lions.) But Detroit also had one of the game's best coaching staffs in 2024 and that staff is no longer in the Motor City. John Morton is an offensive coordinator for the first time. Kelvin Sheppard is a defensive coordinator for the first time. My folks in the league like both promotions very much but until we see it in action, we don't know. This is the first real test of Campbell's tenure, and these two coaches may very well determine the season ahead.

Green Bay Packers: Can they take that elusive next step? How do you write about this team? Since 2020, they are 54-30. They've won a couple of playoff games. They had no business losing to the San Francisco 49ers in the playoffs a few seasons back. They are expertly coached on offense and had one of the best defenses in the league in 2024. This is an organization that has done a lot of winning, but they haven't been to a Super Bowl since 2010. The Packers are in something of a good franchise purgatory. Anything less than playing on the final Sunday of the season will be disappointing. Can they avoid another disappointment?

All we have are questions. Answers don't start arriving until September.