Dave Birkett: Why Detroit Lions have a brighter future than Chicago Bears, Minnesota Vikings

The Detroit Lions clinched their fourth straight last-place finish in the NFC North with Sunday’s 20-16 loss to the Atlanta Falcons, but as the 2021 season nears its end, the Lions seem better-positioned for future success than two of their three division rivals.

The Green Bay Packers remain the class of the NFC North and will be until Aaron Rodgers retires or at least is done playing home games in the state of Wisconsin.

Rodgers is having another MVP-caliber season and the Packers are cruising toward the No. 1 seed in the NFC. They can win different ways on offense, they create enough turnovers to overcome their flaws on defense and they have one of the best coaches in football in Matt LaFleur.

After the Packers, though, the NFC North is a depository for mediocre football.

The Minnesota Vikings are in the playoff hunt with two games left only because someone has to fill the sixth and seventh seeds in the top-heavy NFC. The Vikings could change coaches and general managers this offseason, and even if Mike Zimmer and Rick Spielman stay, they don’t have much of a core to build around.

Kirk Cousins is Jared Goff. The defense is aging. And their best player, Dalvin Cook, is a running back.

The Vikings are stuck in the NFL’s middle class with no path to legitimate contention, exactly the lot the Lions hoped to avoid by mounting a full-scale rebuild.

The Chicago Bears are worse off than the Vikings, with the exception of having a rookie quarterback in Justin Fields who still has a world of development ahead. The Bears have a bottom-third-of-the-NFL roster and almost certainly will be undergoing major changes this offseason.

Matt Nagy’s days as head coach appear numbered. Ryan Pace’s future as GM could be, too. And outside of Fields, the Bears are light on players for their nucleus.

The Lions have been worse than the Vikings and Bears on the field this season, but they are ahead of both when it comes to their rebuild. The Lions have a bona fide offensive line to build around and four first-round picks in the next two drafts (compared to two for the Vikings and one for the Bears).

I’ve said from Day 1, I don’t know if Dan Campbell and Brad Holmes will be successful in their jobs, but they have laid out a clear vision for this organization, one that’s taken shape on the field the past seven weeks.

The Lions want to beat people up in the trenches and have the personnel, at least on offense, to do so. They should nab a pass-rusher (or two) in this year’s draft, which will help move the defense in the same direction, and Campbell’s strength as a leader and motivator is unquestioned.

Ultimately, quarterback remains the most important ingredient for sustainable long-term success in the NFL, and the Lions, Bears and Vikings (and depending on your definition of long-term, even the Packers) still have much to figure out in that regard.

But with a new year and new offseason almost upon us, the Lions are at least ahead of a couple of their division rivals in something.