This again? Trillions of words have been spilled in recent weeks about whether or not the Packers are rebuilding, and it gets you thinking, "Are all of the NFC North teams rebuilding?" Last year's best team in the division is still actively divesting assets. the favorite for 2023 is still sporting a career journeyman at QB, and the other team is the Bears. Let's discuss whether each of the NFC North teams is actively in a rebuild. 

Chicago Bears

Might as well start with the easiest one, though you could probably say the Bears are in more of a build than rebuild since they haven't been good in about a decade. The Bears lack talented players at almost every level on both sides of the ball. They didn't really have a pro-bowl-level talent anywhere last season and they'll maybe have one at linebacker or guard this year. Not exactly the most critical positions. 

The Bears also may have the most complicated rebuild going. One with two potential futures: with and without Justin Fields. Over the next season or two, the most important thing for them to do is see if Justin Fields is a viable NFL QB. If he isn't they need to move on and start a new rebuild. 

Of course, they should still try to beef up their defensive line, find some more receivers, get another tackle, and sign three more corners, but the main thing forever NFL team is figuring out QB. 

Detroit Lions

If you count the number of people who argued about whether the Packers are in a rebuild over the past few weeks, you'd get about 10% of the number who have excitedly jumped onto the Lions bandwagon this offseason. And, sure, it seems like an appealing place at first glance. The team had a top-5 offense last year, they have a fun head coach, their GM seems to make good moves, and the defense improved over the season. 

The Lions might win the division (a division full of rebuilders) next season, but I think the media needs to slow their roll. The Lions are knee-deep in QB purgatory and they don't even have a great defense to prop up the offense. Instead, they have a mediocre at-best defense and an offense that will most likely regress this season. The Lions may have done a good job rebuilding so far, but they are certainly not done yet. 

Minnesota Vikings

The Vikings are sort of the future version of the Lions. They've labored for years with a league-average QB and some good pieces around him. In years where their OC or DC is a plus play caller, they do very well and make the playoffs. In other years, they get destroyed by the Packers and fire their head coach. 

Right now they're stuck between a rock and Kirk Cousins. They don't have the cap space to make the moves that would really push them over the edge to super bowl contender and they'll be too good to be high up enough in the draft to get a premier rookie QB. And even if they did get a premier rookie QB, most of the good players are either already gone (Za'Darius Smith, Dalvin Cook, Eric Kendricks), on the way out (Danielle Hunter), or ancient (Harrison Smith). 

They have the makings of a great young core with players like Christian Darrisaw, Justin Jefferson, and TJ Hockenson, they just don't have the ammo to get all the way there.

Maybe you wouldn't call where the Vikings are a rebuild, but if you were a Vikings fan, you'd probably wish you could.