The entire division won just 13 of 36 non-division games last year.
By The Associared Press

The Green Bay Packers started last season 8-1 and seemed on course to clinch their division earlier than any team in modern NFL history.

Then reality hit.

The only reason the Packers’ record ended up being so good is that the rest of the division was terrible. Green Bay finished 12-4 and was summarily bounced from the playoffs by Atlanta in the first round, the Packers’ first postseason loss at Lambeau Field.

Not much will change this year – except the Packers will be playing in a new, modern Lambeau Field (fortunately the name remains.) They’re good, not great, but the rest of the geographically compact division lingers far behind.

The primary reason for Green Bay’s superiority is Brett Favre, just as it was when the Packers went to Super Bowls after the 1996 and ’97 seasons, winning the first. Favre has made a few noises about retiring, but he’s just 33 – not old for a quarterback – and recently said he might continue for a few more seasons.

“I am competing. It is a challenge to me,” he said. “It is a challenge to go into meetings, go to practice and to get through it without being crabby and anti-social.”

Minnesota figured to be the only team with the weapons to challenge. Then, the Vikings lost running back Michael Bennett for at least half the season because his surgically repaired foot wasn’t healing correctly.

Chicago, moving into the newly renovated Soldier Field, will be better than last season, when it fell from 13-3 and a division title to 4-12. And Detroit has to be better if only because it has a professional coach, Steve Mariucci, in place of Marty Mornhinweg.

Mornhinweg was 5-27 in two seasons, during which he did perhaps the worst job since Les Steckel ran down the Vikings in 1984 and the Metrodome was filled with signs reading “less Steckel.”

But none seem equipped to challenge the Packers. The entire division won only 13 of 36 non-division games last season and seven of those wins were by Green Bay.

The Packers’ offense seems fine. Not only is Favre still one of the league’s top five QBs, but Ahman Green is one of its best running backs. Donald Driver became a top receiver last season and Robert Ferguson could do the same in his third season; many good wideouts take that long to mature.

“A lot of guys never figure it out. But Robert Ferguson

has,” coach Mike Sherman says. “He will have an impact on our team and also in our locker room.”

The offense will be helped

by the return from serious injury of tackles Chad Clifton, from a hip problem caused by a block by Warren Sapp during an interception, and Mark Tauscher.

Finally, there’s one important addition: 37-year-old tight end Wesley Walls, who gives Favre the big end zone target he lost years ago when Mark Chmura retired.

The defense is more questionable.

Nose tackle Gilbert Brown, down to a svelte 350 pounds, tore a biceps muscle in the

first exhibition game and

might need season-ending surgery. But Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila is working on becoming a full-time end, not just a pass rusher.

The Vikings lost the NFC title game after the 2000 season and have slid since to 5-11 and 6-10. Quarterback Daunte Culpepper has declined, in part because the team has not found a complement to Randy Moss at wide receiver.

Without Bennett, who ran for 1,296 yards last season, fourth-round pick Onterrio Smith could be the running back. The defense has potential, especially if first-round pick Kevin Williams can jump in immediately to form a tandem at tackle with rising star Chris Hovan.

The Bears should benefit simply from the return to a

refurbished Soldier Field after a season of 16 road games -eight in their “home” in downstate Champaign. They also

get back a number of important players lost to injury last

year.

And they could get a lift if new quarterback Kordell Stewart has one of his “on” years – he was on-off regularly in Pittsburgh. Rex Grossman, Chicago’s first-round draft pick, has shown promise.

The Bears still need more from Anthony Thomas, the 2001 Offensive Rookie of the Year who averaged just 3.4 yards a carry last year.

The Bears succeeded two years ago with a defense led by Brian Urlacher, one of the game’s top linebackers. He recently signed a deal that will keep him with Chicago until 2011.

“He’s a pillar that we will continue to build on and around for many, many days to come. All we’ve really done is gold-plated it,” general manager Jerry Angelo said.

Mariucci’s presence is a plus in Detroit, but the personnel is still pretty bad.

Team president Matt Millen, who took over in 2001 and hired Mornhinweg, pointed out that six starters on the 2000 team that nearly made the playoffs were out of the NFL by his next season.

So with the exception of a few veterans, notably defensive end Robert Porcher and newly acquired cornerback Dre’ Bly, Mariucci will depend on youngsters.

Second-year quarterback Joey Harrington seems to fit Mariucci’s West Coast offense, and wide receiver Charles Rogers, the second overall pick in the draft, could be an instant star. But Harrington is still learning and so is Rogers, hampered early in training camp by a dislocated finger.

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