The Packers should win the NFC North this year

I’m going to make a prediction before the opening game between the Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bears at Lambeau Field on Sunday Night Football. Most pundits have already heralded that the Bears are a better team than the Packers because of the signing of Jay Cutler. I don’t share his pessimism about the Packers.

In fact, most publications have placed the Packers behind the Bears and Vikings in the race for the NFC North. This just goes to show that most sportswriters get caught up in the media hype and let it seriously affect their predictions. And there was a lot of anticipation surrounding the big swap involving Jay Cutler and all the soap operas with our beloved ex-girlfriend of a quarterback, Brett Favre.

Needless to say, I disagree with them. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the only thing that can stop the Packers this season is injuries. If we can get out of the season relatively unscathed, I’d be surprised if we don’t win the NFC North and make the other three teams look really bad in the process. Look at the difference in wide receiver quality between the Packers and the rest of the three teams in our division. The only other decent one is Calvin Johnson, and Percy Harvin seems to have some talent too.

You can take all the receivers from all three teams, pick the top five, and I’d probably still pick our core wide receivers. Let’s see here, it would probably have to be: Calvin Johnson, Percy Harvin, Devin Hester, Bernard Berrian and Sydney Rice. Yes, he would still have to go to the Packers’ wide receivers.

I know we’re not that deep in all areas of our football team, but I don’t care. If we can get away with relatively few injuries, we’re going to kick some teams this year. Period.