The Packers (12 NFC North titles) have mostly run the division since 2000, although both the Bears (5) and Vikings (6) at least had their share of competitive teams as well along the way.

Then something weird happened in 2023: The Lions captured their first NFC North crown … ever (their last division title in 1993 happened in the “NFC Central”). Suddenly Jared Goff and company look like the class of the division, but honestly, all four teams have reason for optimism ahead of 2024.

What follows is a breakdown of every NFC North team’s top three needs with corresponding stats related to certain position units' 2023 performance, 2024 salary cap allocation, and more.

Note that the needs aren’t listed in any particular order. Thanks to Over The Cap for the salary cap and contract information. Key free agents are unrestricted unless otherwise indicated and listed in no particular order. 2024 draft picks don’t include projected compensatory selections.

For more divisional breakdowns on team needs, see below!

Detroit Lions

Secondary

This is mostly just corner, but an effort should also be made to upgrade the safety room if the team fails to retain Chauncey Gardner-Johnson, who was PFF’s 27th-highest-graded player at the position last season and generally helped set the tone for the defense (when he wasn’t getting stiff-armed by Christian McCaffrey).

But yeah: This CB room was largely the defense’s kryptonite all year long. Basically all parties involved other than ascending rookie Brian Branch were massive disappointments:

Emmanuel Moseley is also a free agent and coming off his second torn ACL in as many years. 

Sep 7, 2023; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Detroit Lions safety Brian Branch (32) intercepts a pass intended for Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Kadarius Toney (19) during the second half at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

There’s a reason why the Lions allowed the third-most receiving yards and TDs to opposing WRs last season; upgrading the backend of this defense should help the league’s 25th-ranked group in EPA allowed per dropback improve in a major way ahead of 2024. Fantasy LIfe’s Matthew Freedman has the Lions filling this need in the form of Missouri CB Ennis Rakestraw in his first 2024 mock draft. Yay!

Wide Receiver

Nobody is debating the elite-ness of Amon-Ra St. Brown (or Kalif Raymond. Kidding. Kind of), but Josh Reynolds and Donovan Peoples-Jones are unrestricted free agents, and Jameson Williams hasn’t exactly lived up to the sky-high expectations that go along with being a top-12 draft pick.

There’s still time for Williams; he’s just 22 years old and is truly a special athlete. Let’s get the speedster an actual full season without suspension and/or injury issues and see what happens.

 Still, only the Giants, Colts, Cardinals, Packers, and Falcons have fewer 2024 dollars devoted to their WRs than the Lions. Adding at least one or two new bodies with either their plethora of cap space and/or four top-100 draft picks makes some sense.

Guard

Both starting guards Jonah Jackson and Graham Glasnow are unrestricted free agents, leaving a bit of interior concern for PFF’s reigning No. 2 ranked unit. Neither is tentatively expected to garner MASSIVE interest on the open market; either way, the Lions have enough cap space to make some meaningful upgrades at the position regardless.

After all, this offensive line is arguably the single most critical feature of this offense:

  • Only the Ravens (1.8) averaged more yards before contact per carry than the Lions (1.7) last season.
  • Jared Goff has averaged 8.2 yards per attempt when kept clean (5th) over the past two seasons compared to six yards when pressured (24th).

Honorable mention: Aidan Hutchinson is a big reason why the Lions ranked fourth in pressure rate (41.3%) last season, although this defense did have to blitz at a top-12 rate in order to help achieve that. At a minimum, depth EDGE pieces like Charles Harris, Romeo Okwara, and Julian Okwara (SFA) need to be replaced or re-signed. This is a pretty damn good-looking roster considering the abundance of available money and draft picks at hand entering the offseason.

Green Bay Packers

Secondary

Starting safeties Rudy Ford and Darnell Savage join nickelback/return specialist Keisean Nixon as unrestricted free agents. Even Simone Biles’s husband/backup safety Jonathan Owens is set to hit the open market.

While the defense largely played their best football when it mattered in January, this group of corners and safeties was largely the group’s main problem outside of longtime No. 1 CB Jaire Alexander. Overall, the Packers ranked 23rd in EPA allowed per dropback during the regular season, infamously surrendering back-to-back-to-back career performances to the likes of Tommy DeVito, Baker Mayfield, and Bryce Young.

The Packers have selected just two defensive backs inside of the draft’s top-three rounds during the last five years; it’d make a lot of sense if they use at least one of their five top-100 picks (!) on a corner or safety regardless of how many of their free agents they manage to re-sign.

Speaking of: Fantasy Life’s Matthew Freedman has the Packers filling this need in the form of Toledo CB Quinyon Mitchell in his first 2024 mock draft. That will work!

Running Back

Aaron Jones ended his 2023 season with five consecutive 100-plus yard efforts and should be back to lead the way even though the Packers could technically save $11.3 million while eating “just” $5.7 million in dead money if they wanted to designate him as a post-June 1 cut.

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Jan 20, 2024; Santa Clara, CA, USA; Green Bay Packers running back Aaron Jones (33) runs for a gain against the San Francisco 49ers in a 2024 NFC divisional round game at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Dan Powers-USA TODAY Sports

This seems unlikely considering Jones’s performance and history with the team, although looking to the future still makes sense considering:

  1. Jones will be 30 next December. This is usually the time frame when RBs start to really decline.
  2. Backups A.J. Dillon, Patrick Taylor (RFA), and Emanuel Wilson (ERFA) are all free agents.

Maybe the team decides to bring back Dillon, but things got rough in 2023: Quadzilla was a bottom-five RB in explosive run play rate, yards per carry, and missed tackles forced per carry alike during a season in which he admittedly battled plenty of injuries.

Offensive Line

The group faces the prospect of losing RG Jon Runyan in free agency as well as backup tackle Yosh Nijman. This isn’t too big of a problem for PFF’s reigning 11th-ranked unit, especially if former first-team All-Pro OT David Bakhtiari can ever get healthy after playing just 13 games over the last three years combined.

That said, it’s tough to be too critical about this group and honestly the roster as a whole. The Packers allowed the third-lowest pressure rate in the league last season and Jordan Love was the game’s best QB in terms of EPA per dropback under pressure. Reminder: This Packers offense was as good as any in the league during the second half of the season.

Honorable mention: Maybe the Packers look to spend a bit more money at WR considering only the Falcons have fewer 2024 dollars devoted to the position, but then again their DEEP group of youngsters performed so well down the stretch that it’d be more than reasonable to simply re-rack all parties involved. 

A similar sentiment is true at TE: Not much money is being spent—and it really doesn’t need to be with Luke Musgrave and Tucker Kraft both looking like plus players at the position despite both only entering their second seasons.

Minnesota Vikings

Quarterback

This becomes easy if Kirk Cousins is simply re-signed and recovers from last season’s devastating Achilles injury. This is far from a given—and Cousins will be 36 in August—but it’s hard to argue with the consistent upper-tier ability that the veteran has demonstrated during his last half-decade of football.

  • 2019: +0.199 (No. 7)
  • 2020: +0.188 (No. 10)
  • 2021: +0.137 (No. 10)
  • 2022: +0.058 (No. 19)
  • 2023: +0.145 (No. 6)

While the Kirk Cousins curse lives on, there have been rumors about the Vikings both: 1.) Being hopeful of re-signing him, and 2.) Taking a QB with the 11th pick in the NFL Draft (Michigan QB J.J. McCarthy is the current favorite).

Justin Jefferson has been vocal about wanting to play with Kirk long-term; the Vikings’ decision on whether or not to retain what is probably (definitely) the best free-agent QB available this year will go a long way toward determining just how serious they are as contenders in 2024 and beyond.

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EDGE

Both of the team’s top-two edge rushers in terms of total pressures in Danielle Hunter (80) and D.J. Wonnum (37) are unrestricted free agents, as is high-priced 2023 offseason addition Marcus Davenport, who was unfortunately limited to just four games last season after suffering a high ankle sprain in Week 6.

Bringing back all parties involved probably isn’t even enough after witnessing just how inept this group was at getting to the QB in 2023. Ranking 28th in pressure rate (31.9%) and 21st in sack rate (6.3%) is bad enough, but these numbers came with Minnesota choosing to blitz at the league’s single-highest clip.

2023 team defense pressure % and blitz %

Fantasy Life’s Matthew Freedman has the Vikings filling this need early in the form of Florida State EDGE Jared Verse in his first 2024 mock draft. I will happily co-sign that mock selection.

Cornerback

The Vikings aren’t losing any key parties here, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t look to improve. Overall, Mekhi Blackmon (71.7, 42nd) was the only Vikings corner to receive a PFF coverage grade inside the position’s top-100 players, as both Byron Murphy (58.2, 107th) and Akayleb Evans (52.5, 125th) struggled to slow down opposing WRs on the outside.

One of just five units to allow 3,000-plus receiving yards to opposing WRs, Minnesota was largely fleeced by WRs aligned on the outside all season long:

  • Yards per attempt allowed: 8.8 (No. 22)
  • Passer rating allowed: 95.6 (No. 18)
  • Contested target rate allowed: 17.7% (No. 29)

It’d make sense if improving the pass rush and maybe chilling on the blitz just a tad helps matters; just realize the on-field production from this group wasn’t good enough considering the Vikings are one of just five teams to use at least five day-one or -two selections on their secondary over the past five years.

Honorable mention: Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison are certainly a power couple at the WR position, but some attention needs to be paid to the third banana of the group with K.J. Osborn and Brandon Powell hitting free agency. 

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Jan 7, 2024; Detroit, Michigan, USA; Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Jordan Addison (3) catches a pass for a touchdown and celebrates with wide receiver Justin Jefferson (18) during second half of the game against the Detroit Lions at Ford Field. Mandatory Credit: David Reginek-USA TODAY Sports

LG Dalton Risner needs to be re-signed or replaced. Otherwise, PFF’s reigning 12th-ranked offensive line is probably in the best shape of Cousins’ tenure in Minnesota. 

The Vikings are currently one of just four teams with fewer than $4.2 million devoted to their linebacker room ahead of 2024 and face the prospect of losing Jordan Hicks in free agency. 

Alexander Mattison and Ty Chandler are still under contract, although a general upgrade might be preferred considering the Vikings ran for just 1,553 yards (29th) while scoring a league-low seven TDs on the ground last season.

Chicago Bears

Quarterback

This is not an overall indictment on Justin Fields, but rather an acceptance that the Bears sure seem likely to use the 2024 NFL Draft’s No. 1 overall pick on alleged generational USC QB Caleb Williams. He opened as a -300 favorite on DraftKings to land on the Bears and accordingly is the first pick in Fantasy Life’s Matthew Freedman’s first 2024 mock draft.

It’d be a lot cooler if Fields hadn’t dealt with so many injuries and coaching/roster malpractice during his three years in Chicago. That said: His passing numbers simply haven’t been good enough to *know* he’s the long-term answer under center.

  • 2021: -0.126 EPA per dropback (30th), -2.0% CPOE (25th)
  • 2022: +0.032 (22nd), -2.5% (27th)
  • 2023: -0.009 (22nd), +0.8% (16th)

The rushing upside obviously matters. Only Lamar Jackson (61.1) has averaged more rushing yards per game than Fields (55.5) among all QBs in NFL history to start at least 16 games. 

Throw in some true highs in 2023 alongside specifically D.J. Moore, and it’d be shocking if someone doesn’t make a trade in order to start the former No. 11 overall pick under center in 2024 and beyond.

Wide Receiver

Speaking of DJM: The 26-year-old stud is coming off career-high marks in receiving yards (1,364) and TDs (9). Moore is a rock solid No. 1 WR for whoever winds up under center for the 2024 Bears.

After that: Sheesh. Darnell Mooney joins backups Equanimeous St. Brown and Trent Taylor as free agents, leaving rising second-year WR Tyler Scott and old man Velus Jones as the technical next men up.

ESPN’s advanced receiver ratings dubbed Moore the NFL’s fourth-best WR in 2023, but neither Scott (44th) nor Mooney (86th) really got anything consistently going on the side. With all due respect to Mooney’s 81-1,055-4 receiving line in 2021: This organization hasn’t had a meaningful WR draft pick hit since Alshon Jeffery in 2012.

Adding one of the draft’s ultra-talented WR prospects with either their ninth or 75th overall pick would go a long way toward improving what’s generally been a bottom-five offensive environment in recent years.

Offensive and Defensive Lines

I couldn’t pick just one, so here we are.

Obviously, the midseason trade for Montez Sweat locked up one of the defensive end spots for years to come, and Andrew Billings is also back as the starting nose tackle.

After that, things could get rough depending on if the team manages to re-sign any of Yannick Ngakoue, Raheem Green, and/or Justin Jones. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to add some new resources regardless; the main weakness in this defense last season was their inability to consistently pressure the QB even after trading for Sweat ahead of the second half of the season.

  • Pressure rate Weeks 1-8: 27.9% (31st)
  • Pressure rate Weeks 9-18: 34.3% (24th)

Fantasy Life’s Matthew Freedman has the Bears filling this need in the form of UCLA EDGE Laiatu Latu in his first 2024 mock draft. That will work!

As for the offensive line: The Bears were one of just five teams to boast bottom-10 PFF grades in both run and pass blocking last season. They are one of 11 squads with under $40 million devoted to their front ahead of 2024 and have only used two picks on the group in the first three rounds of the last five drafts.

More, please.

Honorable mention: Cornerback would also become an immediate need if the Bears aren’t able to retain stud CB Jaylon Johnson. 

The decision to release FS Eddie Jackson reinforces the emphasis on keeping this secondary strong after last season’s relative success on defense. 

The offense could look to add additional resources to the backfield with rotational early-down RB D’Onta Foreman hitting free agency.

Team needs 2024-25