In Their Helmets: What Every NFC North Team Is Thinking Today

After an entire NFL season has come and gone, it's not hard to surmise what teams are thinking about its outcome. Here are my predictions on the thoughts that are preoccupying the teams in the NFC North now that we're just over one week removed from the Super Bowl.

Green Bay Packers: "Will We Make it Back to the Super Bowl?"

The Green Bay Packers were heavily favored to repeat as Super Bowl champions in the 2011-2012 season, but saw their dream cut short in the divisional round, going one-and-done against the New York Giants, who went on to win the Super Bowl against the New England Patriots.

The Packers are 11-2 favorites to win it all next year, second to just the Patriots, according to the MGM Grand's sports book. But merely having the odds on their side isn't going to be enough to make it happen.

The Packers need to keep their offense performing at a high level despite losing offensive coordinator Joe Philbin to the Miami Dolphins and restructuring their coaching staff as a result. But more than anything, the Packers need to improve on defense if they are going to make it back to the big game in 12 months' time.

Just one look at the Packers' pass-defense statistics from 2011 shows how much the team dropped off from their 2010 Super Bowl-winning season:

Comparing the Packers' Pass Defense, 2010 vs. 2011

Year	Yds	Rank	TDs	Rank	INTs	Rank	Yds/Att	Rank
2010	3,107	5	16	4	24	2	5.4	3
2011	4,796	32	29	27	31	1	7.2	30

While they led the league in interceptions in 2011, that didn't make up for the fact they fielded the worst overall secondary in the NFL. Fixing these issues should be the Packers' top offseason priority; if those numbers can improve next year, they'll live up to their billing as the most likely NFC team to reach the Super Bowl.

Detroit Lions: "Can We Maintain Focus After One Good Season?"

Last year, the Detroit Lions had their first winning season since 2000 and their first playoff appearance since 1999. However, they have yet to win a postseason game since 1991 and there's little chance the team has anything less than the Super Bowl in their sights for the 2012 season.

However, they need to be careful that the momentum they built in 2011 doesn't morph into bravado in the offseason.

There's still quite a ways for them to go before they're truly competitive with the likes of the Green Bay Packers, and they need to take these next few months shoring up the holes not only on the field but also in their mental preparedness.

The Lions lacked discipline at times in 2011, racking up penalties and displaying dubious on-field behavior such as defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh's stomp on the Packers' Evan Dietrich-Smith on Thanksgiving day.

There will be little room for these types of mistakes in the 2012 season, when the Lions are going to be under even greater pressure to perform as well or better than they did in 2011.

Though they should be concerned with maintaining the offense's high level of play as well as improving their own secondary (not an uncommon need for many pass-heavy teams in the NFL right now, it seems), divesting themselves of their little mistakes and lapses in focus will go a long way in their effort to having a second winning season in a row.

Minnesota Vikings: "Things Can't Possibly Get Any Worse, Right?"

A second-year quarterback who ended 2011 at the bottom of the rankings. A star running back likely lost for most of the 2012 season with a torn ACL and MCL. No big-play receivers. A defense running on fumes and the skill of a single pass-rusher. Seventeen free agents and not a lot of cap room to play with.

Yes, the Minnesota Vikings are in a bad way right now, but, on the bright side, this is probably as low as things can get for the team.

There's still the draft to look forward to, as well as free agency. There's little chance the Vikings will go 3-13 for a second consecutive year, nor will they likely end the year with a worse record.

It doesn't behoove the team to look to those small positives, however, and ignore the glut of issues plaguing the team. Rather, it would help for them to take one problem at a time, examine just how realistic it is to improve as much as they'd like, do what they can and move onto the next fire that needs extinguishing.

For a team with this many strikes against them, simply not getting overwhelmed by the magnitude of all the broken pieces will serve the team well in trying to overcome them. Just as Rome was not built in a day, a winning NFL team isn't born in just a single offseason, though it often appears that way.

It takes years of building a proper framework to succeed. At this point, the Vikings need to stop the bleeding and try to put together the best team they can considering the circumstances, rather than holding themselves to unrealistic dreams of fielding a near-flawless team in 2012. Incremental improvements reverberate just as strongly over time as do the larger ones.

Chicago Bears: "We Always Seem Just One Step Away."

Unlike the issues that have befallen the Minnesota Vikings, it generally seems like the Chicago Bears are missing one key component that would otherwise push the team into the top tier of the NFL.

For a few years now, it seemed like a lack of strong receivers would do the team in, but they appeared to make the best of a bad situation in 2011 and made a very real push to reach the postseason.

However, those playoff dreams came crashing down, this time because of injuries. First, quarterback Jay Cutler was knocked out for the season after suffering a broken thumb on his throwing hand in Week 11.

Then running back Matt Forte, the team's leading rusher and receiver, sprained his MCL in Week 13, ending his year. Things didn't go so well for the team after that, with rushing duties parsed out among Marion Barber and Kalil Bell and the passing game in the not-so capable hands of Caleb Hanie.

Things got even more terrible for the Bears in Week 15, when wide receiver Johnny Knox suffered a severe back injury that has his career in the NFL, let alone his 2012 season, in jeopardy.

But now things are on track for the Bears to rebound in 2012. They've rid themselves of general manager Jerry Angelo and his head-scratching approach to personnel decisions, replacing him with Phil Emery and promoting offensive line coach Mike Tice to offensive coordinator after Mike Martz stepped down in the wake of Angelo's firing.

It's a chance for the Bears to have a fresh start in a season that's likely to define the Cutler era in Chicago. Now the team is free to draft a first-round wide receiver—something they haven't done since 2011, as well as pick up a veteran in free agency.

The Bears could now finally field the kind of passing offense they were ostensibly hoping for when they picked up Cutler in 2009.

Now they just have to make sure they aren't yet again a single component away from being a playoff contender in 2012. It will take more than just a couple of wide receivers, to be sure, but if they can improve their passing game they're well on their way.

Follow @FBALL_Andrea