Green Bay Packers: A look at the NFC North Division games

The Green Bay Packers have won the NFC North five out of the last six seasons. Will they make it six out of seven in 2017?

To put it blunty (and nicely) the NFC North doesn’t look exceedingly strong in 2017. The Packers started 2016 with a record of 4-6 and rallied to win yet another division title in the Ted Thompson-Mike McCarthy-Aaron Rodgers era.

At least this early in the offseason, it looks like Green Bay should repeat as NFC North champs in 2017.

Last year, the Chicago Bears finished 3-13. They rotated quarterbacks early before eventually settling on Matt Barkley (ouch) and have since moved on from longtime starter Jay Cutler.

Alshon Jeffrey also left the windy city for greener pastures in Philadelphia, which leaves running back Jordan Howard as just about the only respectable skill position player on the Bears’ offense, and the defense doesn’t look any better.

Expect the Bears to struggle mightily again in 2017. Which is always lots of fun to watch.

The Minnesota Vikings looked poised for a breakout season in 2016, but then lost quarterback Teddy Bridgewater to a gruesome knee injury that left most wondering if he’ll ever play again.

Sam Bradford played like typical Sam Bradford in his place, which means the Vikings got average quarterback play and likely will again. That’s too bad, because Minnesota actually has a talented defense that always gives Aaron Rodgers fits.

The other notable news for the Vikings is the loss of Adrian Peterson after an injury-plagued 2016 campaign. While he contributed next to nothing last season, Peterson’s loss still has to hurt Minnesota moving forward.

The Vikings will be better than the Bears, but anything more than a .500 record will be exceeding expectations in Minnesota.

That leaves us with the division’s other playoff team from last year, the Detroit Lions. Matthew Stafford took an unexpected leap forward and was an early-season MVP candidate, though he came back to Earth a little bit toward the end.

Despite boasting some nice talent on the offensive side, it still looks like Detroit will struggle on defense, especially in their secondary. That doesn’t bode well for the Lions’ matchups with Aaron Rodgers and the Packers’ offense.

So what can we expect from the Packers’ 2017 divisional contests? Let’s take a game-by-game look, starting with the Week 4 match up against the Chicago Bears.