One year ago, around this time, the Minnesota Vikings knew who their franchise quarterback was: rookie J.J. McCarthy, a former College Football Playoff national champion at Michigan.
Aaron Rodgers, a first-ballot Hall of Famer, wanted to join Minnesota, but the front office wanted to give a runway to the young McCarthy with no distractions.
Now, though?
McCarthy might never start another game for the Vikings.
As we sit four months away from the beginning of the 2026 NFL regular season, here are my early predictions for one of the closest divisions in all of football: the NFC North.
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The Lions got a tiny bit embarrassed in 2025 after back-to-back years feeling like the darlings of the football world.
All of those 4th-and-inches plays that made them look like geniuses years prior blew up in their face repeatedly last season, and they failed to make the postseason.
Hopefully healthier in 2026, the Lions should bounce back with a stronger overall campaign, with Jared Goff leading the offense a decade after getting picked No. 1 overall by the Los Angeles Rams.
I still have the Bears making the playoffs, but there will be some regression after a magical season in which they seemed to make a miracle comeback in every game.
A first-place schedule is no joke, and though they might not have a better record than 2025, Ben Johnson might have them better prepared for the postseason next time around.
Jordan Love has stretches where he’s the best QB in the NFL, and then, often due to injuries, he slows down, and the Packers collapse before getting near the finish line.
My big question for the Packers is who will step up as the true No. 1 wideout for Green Bay this season.
4. Minnesota Vikings
The Vikings have a good roster and a legitimate superstar in Justin Jefferson, but is bringing in Kyler Murray really the answer for Minnesota in a difficult division?
If Murray plays at his talent ceiling, then sure, the Vikings can have another winning season and make a run in the playoffs. But if he plays as he did in the final two years in Arizona, and the McCarthy drama continues to hang around, it might be another season at the bottom of the North for the Vikings.
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