NFC North Fantasy preview

By James Collier

With the start of the NFL season just around the corner, teams had to finalise their rosters by 4pm Eastern Time on the 29th August. Although these “final” rosters will continue to be fluid until the season actually kicks off, they have now given us a good idea of every teams depth chart. There will be very few changes for players that are on our radars for fantasy football, barring injuries of course. 

So now we can finally take a proper look at each roster with a clear picture of who is going to be fantasy relevant in 2023. We’ll kick it off with the NFC North.

Chicago Bears

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Quarterback

Justin Fields had a breakout 2022 campaign and led the position in fantasy points per game from Week 6 to Week 15 with 27.7. This run coincided with the Bears letting him loose to use his legs more, and he averaged almost 89 yards per game on the ground. The common consensus is that Fields will develop as a passer now that he has a true WR1 to target in DJ Moore. If that happens he should be a top five fantasy quarterback even if he reins in his running a bit.

Running Backs

After the departure of David Montgomery, Khalil Herbert appears to be the starter for at least the beginning of the season. He has been ultra efficient when given opportunities in the past, and no running back that saw over 100 carries could beat his 5.7 yards per attempt in 2022. The question is if he can maintain that efficiency on a bigger workload. Rookie Roschon Johnson will be pushing for passing down work and vet D’Onta Foreman will be a threat to steal some work on the ground if Herbert fails to impress. But apart from deep league stashes, Herbert is the only back to roster to start the season. 

Wide Receivers

The Bears hope to be the latest team to see their passing game take a big leap forward after adding a true number one Wide Receiver in DJ Moore. Moore has been a perennial WR2 in fantasy thanks to poor quarterback play during his career to date. Fields will probably be the best Quarterback he has played with but the Bears were rock bottom in pass attempts with just 22 per game last season. Unless that number gets a major bump it’ll be hard for him to surpass his ADP of the WR18. Chase Claypool and Darnell Mooney round out the depth chart but neither are worth considering at this stage. 

Tight Ends

The leading receiver for the Bears in 2022 was actually Cole Kmet with his 50 receptions for 544 yards. Thanks to his seven touchdowns he was able sneak into the top 12 at the position, but averaged just 8.2 PPR points per game and had just four games with double digits. He’s not an exciting pick but he could easily finish in the top 12 again this year.

Detroit Lions

Quarterback

In his second season with the Lions, Jared Goff improved considerably and was fantasy relevant for the first time since 2019. Only a handful of Quarterbacks threw more than his 4.4k passing yards and 29 touchdowns. As he doesn’t run the ball we are reliant on those touchdowns for Goff to be a fantasy option. With 17 rushing touchdown Jamaal Williams no longer on the team, the Lions could be a more pass heavy offense in the red zone, leading to more scoring opportunities for Goff. But it’s still going to be hard to trust him in fantasy outside of 2QB leagues. 

Running Back

It’s all change in the Lions running back room this season with rookie Jahmyr Gibbs being joined by David Montgomery. The Lions’ expenditure on both players (12th overall pick for Gibbs and three year, $18million deal for Montgomery) suggest both will have significant roles. This combined with the lack of depth at receiver (see below) should mean a significant role as a pass catcher for Gibbs with Montgomery probably getting the majority of the carries and goalline work. Gibbs is the RB14 in ADP with top six upside if things go right. Montgomery is being drafted as the RB31 but could sneak into the top 24 if he can get close to Williams’ touchdown output from last year. 

Wide Receivers

Amon-Ra St Brown was effectively the Lions entire receiving room in 2022 with a 27.9% target share, and this translated into a finish as the WR7. Any danger of 2022 first rounder Jameson Williams overtaking him as the leader of the receiving room seems to have disappeared with Williams receiving a six game gambling suspension. That suspension makes it hard to roster Williams to start the season and with there being no one else of note behind Amon-Ra in the depth chart, he should see comfortably enough volume to be a top 12 receiver again in 2023. 

Tight Ends

After moving on from TJ Hockenson midway through last season, the Lions drafted Sam LaPorta as his replacement in the second round of this year’s draft. As there is not a lot of receiving talent behind St Brown, LaPorta could see a decent workload at the start of his NFL career. It’s always risky to place a bet on a rookie tight end paying off for you in fantasy but LaPorta isn’t all that expensive to acquire in drafts (current ADP of the TE18) and could be worth the risk. 

Green Bay Packers

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Quarterback

After sitting behind Aaron Rodgers for three years, Jordan Love is getting his chance as the starter for the Packers this season. We don’t really have much evidence of Love’s ability at the NFL level so he’s not really worth a gamble in fantasy at this stage. But with a solid and young core of weapons as his disposal, we should find out this season if he has what it takes. 

Running Backs

Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon are about as good of a one-two punch at Running Back as there is in the league. Jones has always been the more efficient of the two and has put out four straight seasons of top 10 fantasy finishes. He’s the primary receiving back of the two, averaging over 50 receptions per season over that same period. And you’d assume that the inexperienced Love will lean on him again this year, giving him a great chance of making it five straight seasons as an RB1. Dillon is an up and down fantasy asset that is largely dependent on touchdowns to be relevant but has an outside chance of a top 24 finish. 

Wide Receivers

The Green Bay wide receiver room is not going to be easy to predict in 2023 with a young quarterback and no clear number one target. Christian Watson had an explosive four game stretch in 2022 where he scored eight total touchdowns and averaged 24.8 fantasy points. But he had just 10 catches in his five games prior to that and it was fellow rookie Romeo Doubs that started the season as a significant part of the offense, before getting injured. The Packers then added Jayden Reed to the mix in the second round of this year’s draft. Watson is the only one being drafted inside the top 150 picks because of that hot streak but it wouldn’t be a shock if either of the other guys led the team in targets this year. 

Tight Ends

The Packers drafted both Luke Musgrave and Tucker Kraft in April but it’s hard to see either really being fantasy relevant to start the season. Musgrave may be worth a stash for later in the season if your bench is deep enough.

Minnesota Vikings

Quarterback

This may well be Kirk Cousins’ final season in Minnesota but he remains a solid, if unexciting fantasy asset. He was the QB9 last year after back to back finishes as the QB11. The Vikings have upgraded his pass catchers over the last 12 months and released their primary running back, indicating that they may be even more pass heavy than they were in 2022. If you miss out on one of the top tier quarterbacks or are after a solid veteran alongside someone like Anthony Richardson, you can’t go wrong with Cousins. 

Running Backs

In his fifth year with the team, it looks as though Alexander Mattison is finally getting the chance to be the Vikings starting running back. He is perhaps one of the most divisive picks in fantasy this year with the community split on whether he has what it takes to be a featured back. The reality is probably that he will be just fine and will finish roughly around where he is being drafted as the RB20. Ty Chandler appears to be the primary backup behind Mattison but only had six carries as a rookie in 2022. 

Wide Receiver

Justin Jefferson is both a real life and a fantasy superstar. After a comfortable finish as the WR1 last year he is the clear consensus number one overall pick heading into this season. Rookie Jordan Addison looks set to benefit from the attention that opposition defenses will have to pay to Jefferson and could well be the top scoring rookie receiver this season. A 32 year old Adam Thielen had over 100 targets in this offense and if Addison sees a similar amount, he should surpass both his ADP (WR37) and Thielen’s WR30 finish. 

Tight Ends

The Vikings traded for TJ Hockenson in November last year and just gave him a contract extension to make him the highest paid tight end in the league on a per year basis. And while he finished behind only Travis Kelce at the position last year, it is worth noting that 35% of his points came in just two games. Outside of those two monster performances there were only two other games where he scored a touchdown and three other games where he topped 60 yards. The bar is low for fantasy tight ends and so he is almost certain to finish inside the top 10 at the position but his TE3 ADP this year feels like his ceiling. 

Feature Image Credit: Nick Wosicka/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

JAMES COLLIER

Lead Fantasy Football Analyst

A Washington fan since the early 2010’s, James had no choice but to turn to fantasy football in search of happiness – and it wasn’t long until it became an obsession. You can follow him on Twitter @jamesc294.

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