The NFC North — the haven of quarterback optimism, good vibes and futures looking bright. Honestly, no division may be happier across the board than the NFC North. But optimism inherently brings mystery, and we still have some major Best Ball questions to answer in this division. Let’s try to answer some of those with the help of Stokastic’s FREE Underdog Best Ball rankings.
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Biggest Best Ball Questions for EVERY TEAM In The NFC North
Click through here to read other biggest Best Ball questions we’ve answered:
Chicago Bears: Is this offense “stack to the moon” good, or just good?
The Bears are arguably building both a win-now offense and a passing attack for the future, all banking heavily on No. 1 overall pick Caleb Williams. Williams being a “generational” quarterback prospect seems to be the industry consensus, but whether that manifests in Year 1 is a whole different debate.
What isn’t up for debate is the Bears putting Williams in a great situation to succeed right out of the gate. They already had D.J. Moore coming off the best year of his career with Justin Fields as his quarterback, and then they added a legit WR1 in his own right in Keenan Allen and drafted a pretty pro-ready rookie in Rome Odunze. WR1 through WR3, there may not be a better group in the NFL. Plus, you can throw in a solid tight end in Cole Kmet.
But how good are these guys as Best Ball assets? Is this a fully stackable passing attack? Here are their Best Ball rankings:
- Williams: No. 106 Overall, ADP 113.2
- Moore: No. 23 Overall, ADP 31.0
- Allen: No. 49 Overall, ADP 53.8
- Odunze: No. 64 Overall, ADP 66.9
- Kmet: No. 138 Overall, ADP 142.6
Look, we won’t know until the season if the Bears are a genuinely great offense or just one that looks like it on paper. But as it stands, all six of their top offensive players (including D’Andre Swift at No. 81 overall and ADP 92.6) are ahead of their average draft position. Pulling off a full stack also shouldn’t be too difficult, so this team has potential to be value galore.
Detroit Lions: Jahmyr Gibbs?
The public is 100% sold. And we were pretty much out on Gibbs at his ADP, but our last run of projections brought us a little closer to consensus on him.
Right now Gibbs is going 12.9 overall, and we have him No. 16. That’s not a huge difference per se, but it is pretty stark given how high he is going. We have Drake London, Chris Olave and Jonathan Taylor ahead of Gibbs in our Best Ball rankings, and he is going before them on average.
The issue with Gibbs is the timeshare with David Montgomery. Gibbs is definitely the more complete back and will be on the field in passing situations, but Montgomery projects for high-value carries. And it’s not like we love Montgomery either — we have him over 10 spots lower than ADP — it’s just that this running back situation does not favor one guy being a late-first, early-second-round pick.
Green Bay Packers: Is Jordan Love a kingmaker?
Everyone was impressed by Jordan Love in his first full season as Packers starter — at least from a real-football sense. His ability to lead a stackable offense, though, is to be determined.
For reference, here are the Best Ball rankings for the top Packers receivers:
- Jayden Reed: No. 60 Overall, ADP 56.7
- Christian Watson: No. 89 Overall, ADP 68.5
- Romeo Doubs: No. 114 Overall, ADP 106.3
- Dontayvion Wicks: No. 125 Overall, ADP 115.1
Long story short, all four of those receivers rank below ADP for us. The Packers have some depth and thus have some stacking ability — plus we have Love a couple spots ahead of ADP — but in terms of overall value, the Packers are not on the level of the Bears.
Minnesota Vikings: How long until we get J.J. to J.J.?
At least three rookie quarterbacks are not totally locked into the starting job this year, and J.J. McCarthy is probably the most set up to be successful in year 1 of those three. Still, because his team is most adamant about the rookie not being the starter Week 1, we rank him behind Bo Nix and Drake Maye despite McCarthy having one of the best receivers in the NFL and one of the best pass-catching tight ends — as well as other good weapons.
The Vikings are clearly slow playing this, and for now Sam Darnold is QB1. No one is excited about that — least of all us, as we rank Darnold outside our top 250 players. But McCarthy (who has been one of our best values most of the summer) has dropped to our No. 232 overall player against an ADP of 208.7, and he is now behind Maye and Nix in our quarterback Best Ball rankings.
It may be a while before McCarthy gets to show off his stuff with Justin Jefferson and T.J. Hockenson — but we still don’t buy Darnold as a Best Ball quarterback.
