1. Detroit looks good. Mathew Stafford, Ndamukong Suh and Calvin Johnson lead a promising team. They are no longer a doormat, and here we predict that they will not only make the playoffs, but win the NFC North Division outright.

We expect the Lions to break away from Green Bay and Minnesota, and lose to the Atlanta Falcons, New Orleans Saints and San Diego Chargers. We hope they have enough momentum to win all the other games on their schedule, which are indeed winnable. So happy Detroit Lions fans will see an 11-5 record.

2. Yes. The Packers won the Super Bowl. We predicted they would. Aaron Rodgers, Clay Mathews, Donald Driver, et al. naturally he is expected to repeat.

But, the winner of the Super Bowl almost never repeats, so we can assume that something will go wrong. And if things go wrong, don’t be surprised if the Green Bay Packers go 9-7 and miss the playoffs.

How can this happen? All that has to happen is for them to lose to the Saints and Falcons, part ways with the Lions and Vikings, and lose to the San Diego Chargers, all of which are within the realm of reasonable possibilities. Then they only need to lose two more games to highly motivated teams like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New York Giants, and the Packers will be 9-7.

Sorry, Green Bay. Life at the top is hard and glory is short-lived.

3. The Minnesota Vikings look to match the Packers at 9-7 and also miss the playoffs. Despite Donavan McNabb and Adrian Peterson, the team just doesn’t look like a winner. In September alone, look for them to go 0-3 against the Chargers, Bucs and Lions. And it will go downhill from there. They won’t be able to beat the Falcons or Saints, and will be split with the Lions and Packers, needing only to lose one more game to go 9-7.

Of course, they will be able to wallow in the misery of their arch-rival Green Bay.

4. We’re going against conventional wisdom about the Bears. We think they are horrible. We think they are so bad that they will go 1-15 and win the Andrew Luck derby. They can beat the Denver Broncos in December, but they will lose to everyone else. Jay Cutler will be booed out of town. Lonnie Smith, who is a very nice guy, will be leaving.