News and Notes NFC North
Here we are. The middle of the offseason and a lot of the big free agency moves have been made, but right now, we’re sitting at the calm before the storm known as the NFL Draft.
In these news and notes columns, I’ll hit each franchise from the NFC North and give some insight their possible fantasy impact. Today we’ll do the talking and thinking. All you need to do is sit back and let us be your one stop for a heads up on the NFC North.
Green Bay Packers- More of an opinion piece, rather than a news headline. Pete Dougherty, who covers the Packers for USA Today, wrote a piece on the possibility of Ted Thompson choosing a player with their 29th pick or trading down.
In short, he believes if a guy is there that they like they’ll take him but if not they’ll trade their pick. This is merely speculation, however Mr. Dougherty is on point. We’ll hold to make an assessment on their first round pick until it is either made or traded.
Detroit Lions- General Manager Bob Quinn believes the offensive and defensive lines are the strength of his team. He was quoted saying this in a recent interview on the MMQB podcast.
I would agree partially with Quinn. They did go out this offseason and grab T.J. Lang and Rick Wagner, but their best defensive lineman is Ezekiel Ansah. The Lions finished 30th in sacks at 26 this year. They will need some help getting to the quarterback this year.
Minnesota Vikings- According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the Vikings may be in the lead for acquiring Joe Mixon in the upcoming NFL draft. They had Matt Miller, the lead draft writer for the Bleacher Report, on their Tuesday Vikings Access Podcast who also believes the Vikings will be the team to select Mixon.
With Adrian Peterson out of the picture, whoever the Vikings choose at running back will be interesting. No matter what Joe Mixon does in the NFL, it’ll be overshadowed by the media covering the incident that got him suspended while at Oklahoma. Outside of that, I believe Joe Mixon will produce quality numbers depending on his landing spot.
Chicago Bears-
Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune believes that the front office staff for the Bears could be in danger of losing their jobs if they botch this draft, specifically in getting a quarterback.
In a recent Q&A article for the Tribune, he wrote, if he [Mike Glennon] doesn’t perform well and the Bears do not have do not have a young quarterback on the roster that shows real promise, he thinks there is a good chance a lot of offices at Halas Hall could be cleaned out.
This is a pretty interesting take on the Bears and experts seem to think they’ll either nab Marshon Lattimore or Jonathan Allen. I don’t think Mike Glennon is going to bode well in Chicago. Their line is iffy and there are no big weapons for him to use. I agree with Brad Biggs and as I stated with the rest of the teams, we’ll assess the fantasy values of these teams after the draft.
The last few weeks before the draft is generally pretty quiet, as teams are building their draft boards right now. They tend to re-assess after the draft. However, a few key positions to watch are going to be at the running back position both Green Bay and Minnesota lost their feature backs leaving the Bears with the best back of the bunch.
My mini mock for the NFC North is the Bears taking Jonathan Allen, the Lions taking Charles Harris, the Packers taking Teez Tabor, and Joe Mixon falling to the Vikes in the second round. Take that for what it is, and we’ll just wait see how draft day unfolds.
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