Why both Packers and Vikings have a claim to the mantle of NFC North favorites
The Minnesota Vikings are coming off a 13-win season that nearly included a trip to the Super Bowl and proceeded to sign quarterback Kirk Cousins after the season. But are they even the favorites in their own division?
According to CBS Sports Senior NFL Writer Pete Prisco, the Vikings aren't the frontrunners in the NFC North. That status still belongs to the Packers.
"Are the Packers the biggest challengers to the Vikings in this division?" Chris Hassel asked Prisco and NFL analyst Danny Kanell on CBS Sports HQ.
"Oh no, the Vikings are the biggest challengers to the Packers," Prisco said. "Aaron Rodgers is back. Once Aaron Rodgers is back, they're the best team in the division. And they've done a lot of things on defense to help that side of the ball."
While Kanell agreed that Rodgers is better than Cousins, he thinks the Vikings' supporting cast will be enough to get them past the Packers.
"I do think the Vikings are the better team," Kanell responded. "I think they have the better defense. And I think Kirk Cousins is going to have a monster season with this team. But I would absolutely put the Packers as the team that has the best chance to knock them from their perch."
It's hard to go wrong with either of those teams. There's no doubt that the Vikings have the better overall team (a year ago, their defense ranked second in DVOA, and their WR duo of Adam Thielen and Stefon Diggs is better than the Packers' assortment of receivers), but there's also no doubt that the Packers have the better of the two quarterbacks -- and that's not a knock on Cousins, who has developed into a good, not great, NFL quarterback. Aaron Rodgers, at his peak, is maybe the best quarterback in the history of football in terms of his athleticism, arm talent, accuracy, ability to throw on the run and so on. He's good enough to negate the advantage in overall talent that the Vikings hold over the Packers -- as long as he can stay healthy, which didn't happen last season.
And don't count out the Lions and Bears. Neither of those teams will likely win the division, but they'll at least challenge the Vikings and Packers during their two meetings. As a whole, after all four teams in the division experienced pretty stellar offseasons, the NFC North is shaping out to be one of the league's top divisions. There are the two Super Bowl contenders in the Packers and Vikings, and then two potential wild-card teams in the Bears and Lions.