NFC North 2006 Previews and Projections

By James Campbell

1) Chicago: da’Bears made the playoffs by breaking out with an 11-6 record last year which was their first winning season since 2001 and figure to battle a now healthy Packer team for the divisional crown this season. In truth these Bears were able to win the divisional crown last year because of the fact that the rest of the division had a very down year as evidenced by GB, Detroit, and Minny combining for a shoddy 18-30 record in 2005. Chicago had a very strong defense last season and good play on that side of the ball will be needed again this year if they want to match last years win total. The Bears have a lot of question marks on an offense that ranked a shoddy 29th overall last year and it starts with QB Rex Grossman’s ability to stay off the injury list, as an insurance policy Chicago brought in Brian Griese to back up Grossman. The Bears also have disgruntled RB Thomas to deal with and a possible training camp injury to starting RB Cedric Benson. Projected record: 10-6

**Look to play AGAINST these Bears in their Monday Night game on October 16th at Arizona, the Cards are only the 2nd playoff caliber team the Bears will have faced at this point in the season. Brand new Cardinal Stadium will surely be rocking and rolling since this is the Cards first MNF appearance since 1999, its also nice to know that four of the Bears six losses from a year ago occurred when playing on the road.

2) Green Bay: Never mind the fact that QB Brett Favre finished last year ranked a very shoddy 14th out of 16 starting NFC Quarterbacks in terms of QB rating and threw an eye opening 29 interceptions against 20 TD's, they begged him to come back, instead the blame was placed solely on HC Mike Sherman. The Packer organization fired HC Mike Sherman for having a 4-12 season last year after he had posted winning seasons in each of his first five years in Packer land and had made the playoffs in each of the four seasons prior to last year. The truth of the matter is that GB suffered serious injuries to key players on both sides of the ball last year and especially on offense where virtually every starting skill position had players succumb to injury except for QB Brett Favre and WR Donald Driver. In Sherman’s place the Packers hired first time HC Mike McCarthy who will look like a genius in winning 10 or 11 games this year, all because the Packers will be healthy once again and were able to pick high in the draft which allowed them to snag linebacker A.J. Hawk with the 5th overall selection, the free agent signing of CB Charles Woodson should shore up the Packer defensive secondary as well. Projected record: 10-6

**Look to play ON these Packers in their October 8th home game against the visiting Rams, St Louis will be playing on the road for the 3rd time in a 4 week span and has a divisional battle versus Seattle on deck, meanwhile, according to the ole history book GB is a perfect 4-0 ATS in their last 4 home games against NFC West teams.

3) Minnesota: These Vikings are one of three teams in this division to bring in a new first time head coach to take the helm with the hiring of HC Brad Childress. The Vikes have won 9 games each of the past three seasons which is really a middle of the road kind of performance, not bad enough to garner top draft picking and not good enough to consistently make the playoffs, hence the reason for HC Mike Tice’s firing (finally!!). For a second straight year the Vikings let a franchaise player get away with the loss of QB Duante Culpepper to Miami and will start 38 year old journeyman QB Brad Johnson who played very well for the Vikes during the second half of last season following Culpepper’s knee injury. Minny had a terrible draft and really didn’t help themselves much in free agency other than the acquisition of RB Chester Taylor and LG Steve Hutchinson to bolster the running game. The Vikes are an aging team with a new first time HC who is installing all new schemes and it adds up to a sub par season. Projected record: 6-10

**Look to play ON these Vikings when they visit Buffalo on October 1st, the Bills will be coming off three straight divisional games and thus will experience a natural let down in this situation, Minny will probably be getting a couple of points and its nice to know that Minny has covered 4 of their last 5 games ATS following a game against the hated Bears.

4) Detroit: What is up with this Lion organization, when are they going to wake up and get rid of GM Matt Millen? Millen was nothing more than a former player who had a broad casting gig with Fox Sports, he had no coaching experience at all nor did he have any front office experience. Yet Millen was hired to assume the GM Duties following the Lions 9-7 season in 2000. Since Millen’s arrival in Detroit the Lions have not had a winning season nor have they won more than 6 games in any single year over the past five seasons under his guidance. Its head shaking stuff that in Millen’s five years in Detroit the Lions have posted a shoddy combined mark of 21-59 and yet he is still the GM! This year the Lions will start their 3rd head coach since Millen took over, this time around they start a brand new HC that has never held the head position (Rod Marinelli). In the big picture these Lions have a brand new first time HC, they have the “mad bomber” Mike Martz installing his complicated offense, they have a new QB under center, and they have a losing mentality to overcome, add it all up and it equals yet another losing year for the Lion faithful. Projected record: 4-12

**Look to play the UNDER when Detroit visits St Louis on October 1st, both teams are in transition with new first time HC’s who want to control the game’s tempo by using the running game, meanwhile, the public will in all likelihood expect a high scoring affair because that is usually what they got in Ram home games.

Jim Campbell runs http://www.FootballForecastor.com which has been an internet based sports handicapping service since 1997, you will be hard pressed to find another handicapper that has had the kind of success Jim has had, over the past eight years he has maintained one of the very best winning percentages of any sports handicapping service.

Jim Campbell finished the final four weeks of the 2005 NFL regular season with a mark of 14-5-2 ATS coming down the stretch for a winning rate of 73.68% and for the season in the NFL he finished with an overall mark of 48-33-4 ATS for a winning rate of 59.26% and that includes a perfect mark of 7-0 ATS in the NFL Playoffs, Jim has posted a mark of 6-2 ATS over the past EIGHT years with his Super Bowl selecton.

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