On Sunday, our NFC North podcast preview series continued. In last week’s episode, we ranked the divisions’ quarterback, running back, and wide receiver rooms. This week, it’s the tight ends, offensive line, and defensive line.
In my opinion, these were some great conversations, and it led to some good insight and debate on the status of the NFC North.
To begin with, the tight ends in this division are LOADED. It could be argued that each team has a top-10 tight end in the NFL: Sam LaPorta, Colston Loveland, Tucker Kraft, and T.J. Hockenson (note: All four received top-10 votes in ESPN’s recent survey). Although, we’ll have to see how Kraft looks coming back from his injury, and Hockenson—who is still somehow just 29 years old—will have to rebound after now being a full year removed from his traumatic leg injuries. Our PODcast crew agrees LaPorta is likely the best of the bunch, but does a deeper room in Chicago give them the edge?
The NFC North offensive lines all have serious questions. The Bears will be without their starting left tackle for most—if not, all—of the season, and now it’s their turn to deal with a sudden center retirement. The Vikings have someone completely new at center and have several young players that need to take jumps. The Packers are running last year’s crew back, but it wasn’t a very good unit in 2025. And the Lions have a new center and tackle, while having an open battle at left guard. We have a pretty hot debate on where the Lions lie, and the answer may be based on which units have the fewest questions.
A similar conversation continues on the defensive line, where there is no real standout unit. The Packers will be without Micah Parsons for around half of a season. The Vikings sent Jonathan Greenard away this offseason. The Bears had one of the worst defensive fronts last year, and they made almost zero investment in it this offseason. So… the Lions may have the best defensive line in the NFC North by default.
All of those debates happen in the second half of this week’s episode. In the first half, we tackle:
- Alim McNeill is not considered a top-10 DT in the NFL. Did the Lions make a mistake extending him? Can he still live up to his massive contract?
- Penei Sewell nonsense with Mike Clay and faulty advanced statistics
Alim McNeill is not considered a top-10 DT in the NFL. Did the Lions make a mistake extending him? Can he still live up to his massive contract?
Penei Sewell nonsense with Mike Clay and faulty advanced statistics
Check out the entire show below or using whatever podcasting platform you like the best!
This may be the week you consume the PODcast via video, because it is accountability week. During the show, Ryan Mathews attempted to eat 100 chicken nuggets, and I attempted to do 100 up-downs (burpees). So if you want to see what that looks like and how we did, you’ll have to watch the episode on our YouTube or Twitch channel.
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