If we go back to the night the Chiefs and Ravens kicked off the 2024 season, many would have argued the best division in football comes out of the AFC. The AFC East has the Bills who have dominated the division for years, the Dolphins who have talent spread all over the field and a coach who holds one of the better offensive minds in the league & the Jets who have future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers returning alongside one of the better defenses in the NFL. Points were also made for the NFC South who has the Buc’s with Baker Mayfield finding his perfect fit, the Saints who also have a QB in Derek Carr who needed to find the right landing spot alongside another probable Hall of Famer Alvin Kamara & the Falcons who went all in this year paying Kirk Cousins and Matthew Judon to try and regain control of the division. But very, very few were talking about the teams from the NFC North.
From afar, you see the Packers & Lions who both made deep playoff runs a year ago. Jordan Love for Green Bay had taken over at the controls and was ready to make the next big leap in his career, and the Lions moved out of the ‘feel-bad’ bunch and joined the table of Super Bowl contenders. But the Bears were expected to be a few years away with rookie QB Caleb Williams, and the Vikings season (not by me) was written off after their own first round draft pick, J.J. McCarthy, went down with a knee injury sidelining him for the year. The conversation was that it was the Lions division to lose, but the Packers would contest. But what has unfolded through the first three weeks inside the NFC North has shocked just about everyone, so let’s break down what has happened thus far.
This realization didn’t happen right away, instead it actually looked bleaker for the division when Jordan Love went down with said knee injury in their first game against the Eagles in Brazil. Jordan Love is a really special talent, he took the best possible route into success and is a format I think every team should follow. They drafted Jordan Love, let him sit & learn under Aaron Rodgers (as Rodgers did Favre) and the success has followed. The more complicated argument of “will it bother your franchise quarterback if you draft his replacement?” and that is a valid argument, which I will also break down in a separate article. But I don’t have time for that here. After Love went down, Malik Willis was appointed as the starter and the Packers following four games became much tougher, in theory. Willis never got the opportunity to take over in Tennessee as the Titans had planned, Willis didn’t play well enough, and Ryan Tannehill was simply just the better option at the time. By the time Tannehill had to step back (injury), Will Levis had been drafted and Tennessee felt it was his time to take over. Expectations of Willis’ play were understandably low when he took over two weeks ago, but with brilliant coaching from Packers Head Coach Matt LaFleur (and some poor game planning from the Colts) the Packers have flourished. Now at 2-1, the Packers should see no reason in trying to rush Jordan Love back since Willis has played so well.
Very rarely do we see not one, but two quarterbacks go down within the same division and both backups go a combined 5-0. But that’s what the Sam Darnold and Malik Willis have been able to accomplish in the early going here in 2024. With the NFC North being the most surprising division thus far, the Vikings are arguably the biggest surprise in the league. Without trying to call out Vikings fans, there was a lot of unwarranted chatter around Sam Darnold and the future of the Vikings. Because of Darnold’s lack of success with the Jets, many believed he couldn’t be successful in general. Many failed to look at who was above and around Darnold when he was in New York. Darnold’s head coach was Adam Gase who currently is in my top 3 of worst NFL head coaches of this generation, and the Jets front office was unable to put the proper tools around him including an offensive line that could not keep him upright. Fast forward to this year, Darnold has one of the sharpest coaches in Kevin O’Connell and also has the best receiver on the planet in Justin Jefferson. The Vikings defense has been as good as the offense and the Vikings have gotten through a tough two games against the 49ers and Texans, dominating both teams. I have been informed that I should be prepared for the Vikings to lose 5 of 7 at some point in the season, but let’s just take this one week at a time and enjoy the fact that the Vikings are undefeated.
With the Vikings and the Packers being a pleasant surprise, the Lions haven’t missed a step. With one close loss at home to a good Buc’s team, the Lions are showing that they are going to be a tough out for anyone. Aiden Hutchinson is the best defensive end in the NFL right now, he had three sacks in the first quarter against the Buc’s. Three in one quarter! Guys go a whole career without tallying three sacks. And the offense is as talented as any other in the league. Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jahmyr Gibbs, Jameson Williams & Sam LaPorta catching passes from Jarred Goff is hard for anyone to stop, and the team always plays inspired under Head Coach Dan Campbell, the best example of a “football-guy”. As I mentioned earlier, the Lions have gone up a tier in terms of their expectations. They broke the playoff drought, they broke the home playoff drought & they won in the playoffs. Now that’s the standard & expectation. The Lions now will only be happy with making it (and soon winning) the Super Bowl
I know we are only three weeks into the season, but no one division has gotten off to the start the NFC North has. It is always more fun when historic franchises like these are in the mix.
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