The beauty of football is that it is unpredictable.
The beauty of opinions is that they can change.
That’s how we get the NFC North turned upside down, at least for one week, at least from one opinion.
Star Tribune columnist La Velle E. Neal III and I squared off in a series of debates this week, part of a new extended audio and video feature on the Daily Delivery podcast.
We dissected the Twins’ biggest pitching blunder, then tackled the potential of the Lynx vs. Caitlin Clark in the playoffs. But we saved our main dissent for the final topic: NFC North power rankings after the first week of the season.
La Velle ordered the teams like this: Detroit, followed by the Packers, Vikings and lastly his beloved Bears. His logic was sound: the Lions still look like the class of the division, while the Bears still have a lot to prove after an ugly Week 1 win.
I don’t disagree that the Lions are No. 1. They occupied that spot going into the season as the defending division champs and looked solid again in an overtime win over the Rams. The divergence came after Detroit.
The Vikings went into the season needing a lot of things to go right in order to be competitive. Sam Darnold needed to be efficient. Aaron Jones needed to revitalize the run game. The defense needed to be healthy and carry a load.
