This season’s NFC North is must-see TV and great fodder for NFL overreactions. Only three of the division’s teams played in Week 7 (the Bears were on bye), and still the drama was as high as it gets.

The Lions and Vikings played each other in just the second game this year between two NFC North teams, which means a lot more goodness is coming. Detroit blew an 11-point fourth-quarter lead in Minnesota only to win it on a last-second field goal by Jake Bates. The Lions improved to 5-1, and the Vikings, with their first loss of the season, fell to 5-1. About four hours east of that game, in Green Bay, the Packers held C.J. Stroud to 86 passing yards and came back to beat the Texans on a late field goal by kicker Brandon McManus, who has been with the team since Wednesday.

I don’t think it’s an overreaction to say the best four teams in the NFC are in the North. Three of the four five-win teams in the conference play in that division (Washington beat Carolina for its fifth win, and Tampa Bay will play for its fifth on Monday night). I’m also not sure it’s an overreaction to say whichever coach wins the division should win the Coach of the Year award. But I know for a fact we should be starting this week’s overreactions — where we judge a few potential takeaways as legitimate or irrational — in the best division in the league.

Jump to:
Lions are top team in NFC?
Giants should have signed Barkley?
Cooper trade more impactful than Adams trade?
Saints’ Allen on the hot seat?
Packers’ D not getting enough love?

The Lions are the best team in the NFC, even without Aidan Hutchinson

One of the big stories of the week was how Detroit would handle the loss of Hutchinson, its star edge rusher who fractured his left tibia and fibula in the Lions’ Week 6 victory in Dallas. Possibly the best player on one of the league’s most loaded rosters, Hutchinson is also a heart-and-soul type of player on the Detroit defense.

The Lions have already made calls about potential trades for edge rushers, and they’ll continue to be a team to watch ahead of the Nov. 5 trade deadline. But in the meantime, they needed to go into a hostile environment Sunday and win a game against an undefeated division rival coming off its bye week. And they did. The Lions and Vikings share the NFC’s best record, and through Sunday’s early window, the Lions held the conference’s top point differential (by one point over the Vikings).

Verdict: NOT AN OVERREACTION

Yes, the loss of Hutchinson creates a major problem for the Detroit coaches to solve. But the Detroit coaches are an elite group of problem-solvers and motivators, and the reason to love the Lions remains the culture that Dan Campbell and his staff have created there. This is a team with a strong foundation, a great deal of confidence and an us-against-the-world mentality. It’s also a team that held a 17-point lead in the second half of the NFC Championship Game on the road in San Francisco nine months ago.

The Lions can maul you with their offensive line and control things with their running game, and quarterback Jared Goff has nine touchdowns and 15 incomplete passes during the Lions’ current four-game winning streak. The Lions’ 120 points over their past three games are their most in a three-game span since November 1997 (125), per ESPN Research.

With the Eagles and 49ers sorting through a bunch of early-season issues, and with a head-to-head road victory over the Vikings in their pocket, the Lions are the NFC’s team to beat.

The Giants made a huge mistake letting Saquon Barkley leave to sign with the Eagles

In the season’s easiest-to-see-coming revenge game, former Giants running back Barkley rolled into MetLife Stadium in Eagles green and rushed for 176 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries in a dominant 28-3 victory. His day featured individual runs of 55, 41 and 38 yards. And per ESPN Research, his 176 rushing yards rank second in NFL history for any player in a game against his former team (Cincinnati’s Cedric Benson had 189 against the Bears in 2009).

Barkley looked like a man living his best life, playing against his old team for a division rival with a better offensive line and supporting cast than he ever had during his six seasons as a Giant. Consider: Barkley had 187 yards from scrimmage alone, while the Giants combined for 119 total yards.

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Barkley’s 55-yard burst sets up Eagles’ opening TD vs Giants

Saquon Barkley breaks free for a 55-yard run, setting up the Eagles’ first touchdown against the Giants.

Verdict: OVERREACTION

It’s not because Barkley isn’t good. He is one of the most exciting players in the NFL when he has the ball in his hands and room to run. But he was with the Giants for six years, and they won nothing. The Eagles are in a very different place as a franchise than the Giants. They’re two seasons removed from a Super Bowl appearance and believe they have a good enough team to get back there. The Giants are in rebuild mode (as it seems they’ve been for more than a decade), and giving Barkley the contract the Eagles gave him would have been a waste.

This situation worked out better for both sides, even though it must have been tough for the Giants and their fans to feel that way Sunday afternoon.

The Amari Cooper trade will have a greater impact than the Davante Adams trade

Two high-profile wideouts were traded last week — Adams to the Jets, where he reunites with old friend Aaron Rodgers, and Cooper to the Bills, where he gives Josh Allen the No. 1 receiver he no longer had once Buffalo traded Stefon Diggs to Houston in the offseason. Cooper’s first catch as a Bill was a touchdown, which is a really cool way to introduce yourself to your new city. He ended up with 66 yards on four catches in Buffalo’s 34-10 victory over the Titans. (Adams’ Jets play against the Steelers in Pittsburgh on Sunday night.)

Verdict: NOT AN OVERREACTION

Adams reuniting with Rodgers is nice, but the Jets didn’t need him. He’s not going to help their run defense, which has been terrible, or their pass protection, which has been spotty at best. It’s a move that makes Rodgers happy, which is the only reason the Jets need to do anything these days, and it’s likely to help at least somewhat.

But Cooper to the Bills is a massive upgrade over what they had at wide receiver. Khalil Shakir looks like a good possession receiver. Keon Coleman could eventually become a No. 1 — he had 125 yards Sunday — but he’s a rookie and has a ways to go. Cooper makes the Bills’ passing offense scary again. And considering the Bills are already operating in front of the Jets and are four-time defending AFC East champions, Cooper is far more likely to play deep into the playoffs than Adams.

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Amari Cooper scores his 1st TD with the Bills

Josh Allen slings one to Amari Cooper in the back of the end zone for a 12-yard Bills touchdown.

The Saints’ Dennis Allen is going to be the next head coach to lose his job

Week 7 began with a completely decimated Saints team getting crushed at home by the Broncos and former coach Sean Payton on Thursday night. After two weeks, New Orleans was the talk of the league at 2-0 and with an offense that couldn’t be stopped. Since then, the Saints have lost five in a row.

And while their offense is incredibly banged up and was playing this game without its starting quarterback (Derek Carr) and top two wide receivers (Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed), the defense has been unable to stop anyone lately. Denver had almost 250 yards in the first half and finished the game with 389, including 225 on the ground. The Saints aren’t very good at anything right now.

Verdict: NOT AN OVERREACTION

This becomes especially true because Jacksonville’s Doug Pederson, whose seat likely was the hottest in the league going into Week 7, got a win Sunday over the Patriots in London.

The Saints are going to start getting some of their stars back over the next week or so. And the next two offenses they face are the Chargers and Panthers, so their defense will have a chance to look better. But it’s not like Denver’s offense has done this to anyone else.

Saints ownership likes Allen a lot and wants to see him succeed. But given the roster and salary cap issues, as well as their long-term uncertainty at quarterback, this is absolutely a spot to watch for a potential coaching change at the end of the season, if not sooner. Allen’s seat is scorching hot.

Bonus: This week’s underreaction

I’m trying out something new here by throwing out something people are underreacting to right now — something that’s not getting the attention we think it should.

The Packers might finally have the defense they need to support their offense

Green Bay hired a new defensive coordinator this offseason — former Boston College coach Jeff Hafley — and installed a new scheme. Defense has been a major thorn in the side of Packers coach Matt LaFleur since he got there, and the team believed that side of the ball has significantly underperformed over the past several years. So the Packers made major changes, and the players seem to be responding so far.

The Packers led the league with 17 takeaways through the first six weeks of the season, and while they didn’t have any Sunday, they held Stroud to 86 passing yards, sacked him four times and gave up a total of 197 yards to a strong Houston team. Yeah, Joe Mixon ran for 115 yards and two touchdowns, but the Packers stopped everything else.

“I told them I want to lead the league in two things — takeaways and effort,” Hafley told me. And he had to be pleased with the latter Sunday even in the absence of the former. As good as the Packers are on offense, with Jordan Love slinging it all over the field to five or six different receivers and handing it off to a dynamic Josh Jacobs, they know they probably could have advanced further the past few years if the defense had held its own. The early returns on the 2024 defense indicate that they might finally have one that can. Don’t sleep on the Packers’ defense. Just ask Stroud.