It's 'Wide Open' in NFC North

As Bears tight end Robert Tonyan Jr. said, the NFC North is now up for grabs after the king abdicated and went to the Jets.

USA Today

New Bears tight end Robert Tonyan Jr. is Minnesota Vikings tight end T.J. Hockenson in that both have spent their careers in the NFC North.

There is no better expert than someone who has faced the teams twice a year or been on those teams, save New England Patriots tackle Riley Reif, the Bears right tackle last year who has been on every NFC North team except Green Bay but faced them twice a year.

Tonyan's assessment of the division now with the obvious defecting to the New York Jets of Aaron Rodgers, who dominated play within the North for the past decade and a half?

"It's wide open," Tonyan said. "That's the best part. Everyone is young. Everyone is new. You have good players on every team. That's the thing. There is no favorite. And it's wide open. And that's exactly where you want to be."

The Bears will no doubt be regarded as one of the longest shots because of the youth of their team and the lack of starters who have played together.

"Overlooked, underrated, whatever you want to call it," Tonyan said. "But they still gotta step on the field because they've got to see us. I'm excited."

There are obvious problems with the Bears roster yet that make them the longer shot, particularly the pass rush. However, there are some strengths they can exploit against these opponents to get into the hunt this season and stay there.

Here is where the Bears match up best against the Packers, Minnesota Vikings and Detroit Lions, their rivals in the NFC North. One player they have found they can use to gain plenty of matchup edges is Justin Fields, because of his speed as a ballcarrier. The ability he has to scramble gave all three opponents fits in the past, although it definitely didn't produce a win last year in the division.

Detroit Lions

The Lions pass rush looked improved off the edge last tear, but their run defense was their real problem, as well as their pass coverage. The rush wasn't good enough to offset their problems defending passes. Still questionable on the interior of their defense, it should be a situation the Bears, as the league's best running team last year, have no problem exploiting.

Sure, the Bears got blasted by the Lions in Detroit but they were already in tank mode and Fields had the only really bad game he had in his stretch of 10 games when he showed drastic improvement as a passer. He also didn't have a receiver available who could scare anyone. Chase Claypool was coming off an injury and didn't know the offense. Darnell Mooney was hurt. Khalil Herbert had been hurt so their explosiveness in the run game then was lacking.

Love that they’re working together, but this is why people have doubts with CC. Where is he at with this going on? He needs to be there https://t.co/RxrXPpcl6u

— Conor (@DaWheels_1) July 3, 2023

The Bears' strength again should be running and the Lions' defensive front looks no more formidable than last year at this point. Their big defensive line signing was retaining Isaiah Buggs. Not many people are shaking in fear here over Buggs. They did draft linebacker Jack Campbell, but like with all of the Bears rookies, he has a long way to go to prove himself when he hasn't taken a snap in the NFL. Detroit paid out $18.7 million for retention of linebacker Alex Anzalone when the market value being placed on him by Pro Football Focus was $7.5 million to $9 million. Not a sound move here. The Bears should be able to pound the ball at the Lions even at a higher level than before. They now have D'Onta Foreman, who gained a career-high 165 yards rushing against Detroit to damage the Lions' playoff hopes. Detroit's offensive line is its strength, but they're still giving away plenty up front against the run on the other side of the ball until they prove otherwise.

For that matter, the Bears passing game, as unproven as it is has a shot at causing trouble for a Detroit secondary that is revamped. Sure C.J. Gardner-Johnson was good as a safety in Philadelphia's dominant defense but how will he do in a struggling group like with the Lions. They were 30th stopping the pass last year and addressed the situation at cornerback but they didn't bring in All-Pro cornerbacks. Emmanuel Moseley has been decent in coverage...when he played. Cam Sutton has been up and down—up last year and down the previous year. Steelers cornerbacks don't have a good history of going elsewhere and functioning the same in a different system. Rookies still must prove it. So DJ Moore and Mooney might find what they like here in the secondary.

The Lions-Bears games have the makings of wild, high-scoring games.

Insane. pic.twitter.com/gAn8J3VZXt

— As a Former NFL Agent (@TommyK_NFLDraft) July 4, 2023

Green Bay Packers

The obvious Packers problem is a new quarterback. Sure, he's been there three years learning, but there's no education like doing it. Jordan Love three weeks ago had coach Matt LaFleur addressing the number of "ducks" he was throwing. They weren't tight the tight spirals Green Bay receivers are used to seeing.

Love in Week 1 is going to get plenty of disguised looks, maybe even some blitzing from a team that doesn't do it much, and he's going to be confused at times when a team known for zone is playing man-to-man coverage. Until he has that real education he is the presumed weakness the Bears and other teams can exploit. Besides, Packers receivers have to be considered a weak spot. They had one year without Davante Adams around to learn how to pick up the slack but they had it with Rodgers putting the ball right in their hands in stride. Some of the time they were dropping it anyway. The one proven strength to the Bears defense was their secondary. They were ninth in the league covering against the pass before Eddie Jackson's season-ending injury and then subsequent injuries to every one of their secondary starters and a few backups caused them to fall back to the middle of the pack. They'll be stronger even this year there, although they'll again likely operate without the rush aspect of rush-and-cover.

Green Bay's defense has been stronger against the run when they played the Bears but not overall as they were 26th there last year. When they played the Bears the second time at Soldier Field last year, it was the first time they faced an offense with Fields as a player being schemed as a runner. He broke a 55-yarder on them, and the Bears had a 19-10 lead going into the fourth quarterback before the leaking Bears defense caved in. Green Bay did not cope well with that extra blocker provided by using a running quarterback. The Bears ran for 155 yards and didn't even have Herbert available as a breakaway threat. Expect them to try to exploit Fields as a runner in the opener even though they've said this is something they might lay off of this year to a greater extent.

Have a feeling this duo might be tough to stop next season. https://t.co/xVkemoo7SW

— Dave (@dave_bfr) July 3, 2023

Minnesota Vikings

The Vikings are set. They're set to play flag football or two-hand touch.

What's left of their defense after it was gutted could have trouble stopping the Bears from running, the way they stopped the rush last year in the first game between the teams when Fields actually hurt them more with the pass. Their second game was a practice game.

Minnesota will go with a patchwork secondary. Their linebacker group, with inexperienced Brian Asamoah and Cardinals castoff Jordan Hicks, is not equipped to stop much. In fact, with two tight ends capable of catching passes like the Bears have, expect them to exploit this problem. With Danielle Hunter in limbo over his contract and Marcus Davenport moving to be a linebacker in a 3-4 for the first time in an injury riddled career, the Vikings still do have the makings of possible outside rush. But they're also counting on castoff Bears seventh-round draft pick Khyiris Tonga at the nose and Packers retread Dean Lowry at end. Their big selling point is Brian Flores as defensive coordinator, which means they'll blitz plenty while Flores is still interested before planning his next head coaching job. Flores' last Miami defense started his final season there allowing 29.1 points a game for the first eight weeks and when they were done making a mess of things they were 1-7.

One big edge Minnesota has had on the Bears was Dalvin Cook's running as a counter-balance to keep focus from the defense shifting entirely to stopping their receivers. That's gone now. You don't just snap a finger and replace an all-round threat like Cook.

This is a different Minnesota team than the one that was very fortunate to go 13-4 last year by winning a lot of close games, and there's plenty for the Bears to pick at on offense, if not defense.

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