The NFC North is expected to be a battleground in 2025. Last season, the division was competitive and despite the Minnesota Vikings winning 14 games, they failed to secure the division title. Instead, it went to the Detroit Lions.
Detroit was a great team in 2024. They overcame significant injuries to win the division and the top seed in the NFC playoff picture. They should be a lot of trouble for opponents again this season, but things will definitely be different.
The Green Bay Packers are a young team that are hungry to establish themselves and regular contenders while the Chicago Bears are building a roster that is loaded with scary talent on both sides of the ball.
Detroit may have swept the Vikings last year, but that's no guarantee that the Lions will repeat that feat in 2025. In fact, the team might actually be looking forward to the games against their division rivals to get revenge and climb to the top of the NFC North.
The Minnesota Vikings may not have to fear the Detroit Lions the way they did in 2024.
Recently, Bleacher Report shared an article discussing the winners and losers from OTAs and minicamp. Although the Minnesota Vikings were not included in the piece, their division opponents Detroit Lions were.
In the article by Gary Davenport, the Lions are listed as a loser because of their offense, which is strange considering how Detroit consistently put up points in a big way regularly last season, even against tough opposition.
However, they did lose their offensive coordinator Ben Johnson to the Chicago Bears and will need to get things figured out on their offensive line. However, Amon-Ra St. Brown sitting out after having knee surgery this offseason is definitely something to keep an eye on.
It's not shocking that the offense needs an adjustment period. Head coach Dan Campbell spoke about that recently.
"Offensively, same thing there. It's about what offensive coordinator John Morton really wants. We've tweaked a few things here and there — how he sees it, how he wants things run, how he wants to isolate certain players."
Dan Campbell via DetroitLions.com
The big question is how long it will take for the Lions to get everything running smoothly on their offense. Minnesota doesn't face them until Week 9 of the regular season, which gives them a lot of time to figure things out.
However, it's hard to know how a new coordinator and new offensive linemen can impact a team going forward until they take the field in a meaningful contest. It will be interesting to see if they get it all sorted out by the time they face the Minnesota Vikings this season.
