How Do The Lions Rank in The NFC North?

Most analysts are ranking the Lions at the bottom of the NFCN, and understandable so - the past 2 years have given them every reason to do so. When breaking down the North by unit, however, I'm not so sure the Lions are the bottom dwellers of the North.

**Please note: We are only looking at 2010 here. For instance, in comparing QB's, I don't care if you think Stafford may have a brighter future. The question is who would you have the most confidence in for 2010?

Another way to look at it is this: If you had to draft the entire unit, in what order would you draft for 2010?

OFFENSIVE LINE

The Packers lead the league in Sacks allowed last year with 51. Even with draft pick Bryan Baluga and the return of Tauscher,  I don't see them as having done enough to improve this unit. This is the weakest link on an otherwise solid team.

The Bears struggled protecting Culter as well, and adding a Martz offensive system will only make it worse. Tice may be a great o-line coach, but you can't teach talent. This year I would even take Green Bay's line over the Bear's

The Vikings have a great offensive line with Hutchinson and McKinnie. Hands down best unit in the division.

With the addition of Sims and the return of Peterman, this unit should have crept it's way back up to mediocrity. I know Schwartz was talking pro-bowl for Backus, but I have him more as an average LT (which is much better than many fans!).

My Rankings for the O-Line:

1. Vikings

2. Lions

3. Green Bay

4. Bears

TIGHT ENDS

People love them some Finley, and I get why. He's got everything you want in a TE. But so does Pettigrew. In fact, so does Scheffler. What I love about what the Lion's have done at this position is that which Scheffler, not only does Pettigrew get a veteran presence, but also Scheff is used to a rocket arm QB. Shiancoe is simply a solid TE and Olsen's blocking has not lived up to his expectations. A lot of people have ranked Finley as the top TE in the division, but when looking at the entire unit, I can't pick any of them over the Scheffler/Pettigrew combo, not even Finley/Lee.

1. Lions

2. Packers

3. Vikings

4. Bears

WIDE RECEIVERS

This one is hardest for me. I want to pick the Lions because of Megatron, but I've watched Driver and Jennings tear up too many teams too often. They are strong, hard working, talented WR's who do everything the right way. Then there's Rice and Harvin. A lot of speed and talent there too. I've got to give the Lions the advantage on this one though, because of what we have seen Burleson do. The Bears, although they have speed, don't have the size and I still don't buy Hester as a bonafide #1 option. I see them struggling early trying to get Martz's playbook down.

1. Packers

2. Lions

3. Vikings

4. Bears

QUARTERBACK

Again Green Bay leads the pack, so to speak. Expect for maybe holding the ball too long from time to time, there isn't much to complain about him. If I had to choose between Culter and Stafford, I would have to take Cutler because I know that he can make things happen if I can protect him. Then there's Favre (yes, he's coming back). I can't take him this season. He will not be who he was last year.

1. Packers

2. Bears

3. Lions

4. Vikings

RUNNINGBACK

You gotta love All Day, but he's been bugging out this offseason. Losing Taylor doesn't help. The Bears adding Taylor does help them, and Forte, although he didn't look good behind that line, can break some tackles and make people miss. Grant doesn't seem to be anything special, but at this point that's about all I can say about Smith. So at this point, I project Best to be a differentiator between Green Bay and Detroit. Oh, I also love me some Felton - I want to see more of him this year in short yardage.

1. Vikings

2. Bears

3. Lions

4. Green Bay

DEFENSIVE LINE

Although I LOVE LOVE LOVE what the Lions have done to this unit, I can't bet against the Viking's line. You've got a couple studs in the middle with Mullet killing it on the end. I'm not buying that the Bears are going to get the value they paid for out of Peppers and I think the loss of Jolly will hurt Green Bay.

1. Vikings

2. Lions

3. Bears

4. Green Bay

LINEBACKERS

Potential? Yes. But what do we REALLY know? Not much. Levy scares me. On film I saw too many broken tackles and poor coverage. Follett will probably start at WILL and again, all I can have is hope. The biggest battle for me is Bears vs. Green Bay. Although Urlacher is back, I don't trust that he is going to be what he once was and although I love Briggs, Hawk, Barnett, and Matthews are very impressive.

1. Green Bay

2. Bears

3. Vikings

4. Lions

CORNERBACK

There's not a great unit in the division. I really like Woodson and Harris, but they are starting to slow down. Tillman is a ball Hawk..when he is healthy, and Winfield has some good stuff but not much after him. Oh I forgot, do the Lions have any corners? Actually, I think I'm going to really like Spievey, but I got no love for the unit right now.

1. Green Bay

2. Vikings

3. Bears

4. Lions

SAFETY

Outside of Green Bay, Delmas is the only player worth talking about. Unfortunately trying to figure out who lines up next to him is about as bad as Delmas is good. The Bears have nothing and the Vikings are unspectacular.

1. Green Bay

2. Lions

3. Vikings

4. Bears

SPECIAL TEAMS

It's hard to project Special Team performance since it changes dramatically as the bottom of the rosters are determined. What can be seen, however is that the Bears always tend to have excellent special teams - from Gould to coverage and returners, they tend to lead the league. According to Footballoutsiders.com, last year's S/Ts ranked as such.

1. Bears (3 overall)

2. Vikings (4 overall)

3. Lions (31 overall)

4. Packers (32 overall)

I have no reason to argue with that.

COACHES

I'm a big fan of Schwartz and I like the choices that the Lions made to bring in long standing, proven coordinators. I'm excited to see what Crossman will do for S/T. However, I will not yet presume that they can do what McCarthy and Childress have done. Although Lovie had the Superbowl run, I still think he's trying to run a defensive system that is on the decline (due to several factors including new rules over the past couple years) and he has two coordinators that clashed pretty bad last time they were together...

1. Packers

2. Vikings

3. Lions

4. Bears

OVERALL

So now, we are going to make an INSANELY IGNORANT assumption and presume all units have equal value. We also must realize that the difference between the #1 and #4 in some categories could be very different than others. Without going into all of that, lets just look at the overall rankings by the numbers above:

1. Packers (23 points)

2. Vikings (25 Points)

3. Lions (29 Points)

4. Bears (33 Points)

The point of this simpe exercise? Simply this: If you look at the facts, there is plenty of reason to believe that 1) The Lions can be a competitive team this year that can surprise people and 2) Last place in the division is not a gimme.