Ranking the NFC North LBs, DBs, and coaches

Posted by Admin July 21, 2026 NFL

On Monday evening, the PODcast crew finished our NFC North positional rankings. Previously…

On this episode, we debated the division’s best linebacker room, secondary, and coaching staff.

At linebacker, it’s clear the Lions have the best individual linebacker in Jack Campbell, but with so many questions behind him, is it fair to rank Detroit No. 1? Or is Green Bay’s Edgerrin Cooper, Zaire Franklin, and Isaiah McDuffie trio better overall? And what do we think of Devin Bush in Chicago? Will that work?

Then we move to the secondary, where we try to figure out where the Lions fit. There’s so many questions at both cornerback and safety, but Detroit did a relatively good job building out enough depth to have experienced options nearly everywhere. In a division that doesn’t have a ton of standouts—particularly at cornerback—is it possible Detroit tops the rankings?

Finally, we close with the highly debated coaching rankings. How quick are we to give Ben Johnson credit in Chicago after one highly successful season? And has the shine completely worn off Kevin O’Connell? Then we have a long conversation about our level of confidence in both Lions offensive coordinator Drew Petzing and defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard.

Plus, the PODcast kicks off with a discussion about whether Jared Goff and Amon-Ra St. Brown are fairly ranked in ESPN’s latest positional rankings.

You can catch the entire episode on whatever podcasting platform you prefer by searching Pride of Detroit. Or you can listen using the embedded Spotify player below.

(As of writing, the embedding isn’t working, so you can just click here instead)

Or, if you’d prefer to WATCH the PODcast, it’s available over on our YouTube page or Twitch channel.