Green Bay Packers
The Packers are an incredibly dangerous team but they have a major hole on defense: they’re unable to stop the run. This is a big problem with both their defensive line and their linebackers. Their biggest need heading into the draft will be at the linebacker position. Their starting linebackers right now are Julius Peppers, Clay Matthews, Carl Bradford, and Nick Perry. Out of all of them, Matthews is the only one that would be considered a quality starter, and with his injury history he’s no guarantee at any given time. According to PFF (subscription), the Packers had the second worst run defense grade. This is something that desperately needs to be addressed at both the linebacker and defensive line level, although the linebacking corps is more dire.
Detroit Lions
The Lions have a total cap number of $43,629,250 tied up in their top three offensive players; Calvin Johnson, Matthew Stafford, and Golden Tate. They have $5,265,902 tied up in the five guys currently assigned to giving Stafford enough time to effectively get the ball to Johnson and Tate. Of those five, two were undrafted free agents and only one was a first round draft pick. Usually this isn’t a winning formula. According to PFF, the Lions ranked in the bottom half of the league in both run blocking and pass blocking. If you’re going to invest as much money as the Lions have in their offensive skill players, they need to invest a lot of high draft picks in the guys that will be blocking for said skill players.
Chicago Bears
The Bears are in a similar position to the Lions. They have skill players with a lot of talent but an offensive line that could use some help to enable those skill players to thrive. Their offensive line did well last season in run blocking but really slacked when it came to pass protection. If the Bears truly want to give quarterback Jay Cutler one last chance to succeed they need to give him the best chance possible by giving him a line that can protect him. Another need a lot of people will say is their biggest is their secondary. However, they’ve upgraded a few pieces there and, more importantly, they hired Vic Fangio as their defensive coordinator. He’s going to be able to cover up a lot of deficiencies on the defensive side of the ball. They’ve also upgraded their front seven, which will likely have a positive impact on their secondary as well.
Minnesota Vikings
The Vikings are no different than the Bears or Lions. They too are in need of offensive line help. Their young left tackle, Matt Kalil, and person in charge of protecting Teddy Bridgewater’s blind side was their worst offensive lineman last season according to PFF. It just so happens that Kalil is in the last year of his contract, so drafting a top lineman this year and experimenting with Kalil at different positions might not be the worst idea. It would be hard to get much worse at the left tackle position. Out of 84 qualifying tackles, Kalil had the fourth worst PFF grade. If you want your young, franchise quarterback to succeed you need much more production from your offensive line than the Vikings have been getting. This is something they must improve upon.