ESPNMAG.com - Green Bay Packers

LAST SEASON: 12-4, lost to Rams in divisional round of playoffs
PROJECTION: 1st in NFC North

Brett Favre
Everyone's happy when Favre is behind center.

An iron man QB, a new deep threat at WR and an upgrade at DE. The Packers will win 11 games, enough to do the Lambeau Leap back to the top of the division.

STRONG SIDE

QB: Nothing warms the hearts of frozen Green Bay fans like seeing Brett Favre under center. As long as he's around, Packer backers can always think Super Bowl. The three-time MVP's impressive numbers last season -- 3,921 passing yards, 32 TDs and the fourth-best QB rating (94.1) -- could be even better with the addition of WR Terry Glenn. At 32, Favre can still make all the throws, and his durability is unmatched. He holds the record for consecutive regular-season starts (157). If he plays all 16 games this season, he'll surely become just the eighth QB in NFL history to throw for more than 40,000 yards.

WEAK SIDE

DB: Once a Packer strength, the secondary has suddenly diminished. Unproven SS Antuan Edwards is coming off knee surgery, which limits his lateral movement. Rookie SS Marques Anderson is ... a rookie. One of them must replace the retired LeRoy Butler, who ranks among the game's smartest DBs ever. Add it up, and athletic FS Darren Sharper, a Pro Bowler in 2000, had better be on top of his game.

NFC North

1. Packers

2. Bears

3. Vikings

4. Lions

Scouting Report Index

OTHER UNITS

RB: Ahman Green learned to hold on to the ball and how to find holes for a team-high 1,387 rushing yards. Green's emergence as a double threat (62 catches for 594 receiving yards) convinced management to let eight-year Packer Dorsey Levens go.

WR: Brett Favre glows when talking about Terry Glenn, second-year man Robert Ferguson and first-round pick Javon Walker. Glenn is the key. If he can stay healthy (he missed some of training camp with a left knee sprain) and keep out of trouble, Favre has his first deep threat since Sterling Sharpe.

OL: Favre's consecutive-games streak (see Strong Side) begins here. Four of the five starters -- LT Chad Clifton, C Frank Winters, RG Marco Rivera and RT Mark Tauscher -- have been together for three years. Third-year LT Clifton (6'5'', 327), a pile-mover, is fast becoming one of the NFL's best.

DL: Green Bay was second in the NFC with 52 sacks last year. Add free agent DE Joe Johnson (9 sacks) to veteran Vonnie Holliday (7) and young speed-rusher Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila (13.5), and the Packers are solid. They're better than that if DTs Gilbert Brown and Cletidus Hunt can stop the run.

LB: Nate Wayne and Na'il Diggs provide size and speed on the outside, but MLB is a huge question. Promising second-year man Torrance Marshall and FA Hardy Nickerson are battling for the starting job. Marshall has the skills but lacks the instincts; at age 37, Nickerson is just the opposite.

ST: Ryan Longwell, the most accurate kicker in NFL history entering last season, missed 11 of 31 FG attempts. Allen Rossum's departure leaves the Packers searching for a quality return man.

This article appears in the September 16 issue of ESPN The Magazine.