Every week, PFW executive editor and resident Packers expert Dan Arkush asks a different personality from the world of pro football five questions about the Packers. This week Dan puts PFW editor/publisher and "Pro Football Weekly" syndicated radio show co-host Hub Arkush on the hotseat in advance of Green Bay's Week Four game against the Lions. Hub hosts the "Pro Football Weekly" radio show along with Packers play-by-play man Wayne Larrivee.
1. In your own personal NFL power rankings, where do you rank the Packers (1 to 32) after their loss to the Bears?
I'd rank them No. 3 behind Pittsburgh and Indianapolis. As for the loss to the Bears last Monday night, if you had to start a team tomorrow and you could take either the Packers' roster or the Bears' roster, which would you take? Green Bay is still the most talented team in the NFC and probably the NFL. What the loss to the Bears showed was that the offensive tackle on both sides is still an issue for the Packers, and they may need to be thinking long and hard about whether they should get Bryan Bulaga ready right now and trust him on one side or the other, or at least find out if he can be an answer. The rest of that mess in Chicago I suspect was just a bad day at the office.
2. Do you still envision the Packers winning the NFC North?
The Packers will win the North, and I suspect the Bears are going to be a wild card. What should be very interesting is whether or not the Vikings can be the other wild card. With Sidney Rice, the Vikings are better than the Bears, but Minnesota's woes won't get fixed as quickly as the Pack's, and the two-game lead they've spotted the Bears may prove too hard to make up.
3. Where do you rank Aaron Rodgers right now among NFL quarterbacks?
I think you'd still have to take Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and Drew Brees ahead of Rodgers on the combination of ability, potential, accomplishment and the rings, but I'd take Rodgers over Ben Roethlisberger and Eli Manning, with Philip Rivers and Jay Cutler chasing them in that order. It's reasonable to project that if the Pack could protect him better, Rodgers might not have a flaw in his game, other than the tendency to still hold on to the ball a little too long every once in a while.
4. What is the Packers' key concern in your opinion three games into the season?
The age and health of starting OTs Chad Clifton and Mark Tauscher. I know folks are worried about running back with Ryan Grant down, but I really believe Brandon Jackson can do anything Grant can given the chance and some experience. The problem is if the tackles aren't getting the job done, nobody, including Grant, is going to fix the Green Bay ground game. I don't doubt the pedigrees of either Clifton or Tauscher, I'm just not sure if there's enough tread left on their tires.
5. Do the Lions have any shot at springing an upset in Green Bay Sunday, considering they have lost their last 19 games in the state of Wisconsin (including games at County Stadium in Milwaukee)? What is your prediction?
The Lions have been in all three of their losses and probably should have beaten the Bears, so it would be foolish to say they have no chance Sunday. It really comes down to whether the Packers are upset enough about how they embarrassed themselves last Monday night, or have they been reading too many of their own press clippings and think they can just show up. If it's the latter, the Lions will give them all they can handle before the Packers wake up and put it away in the fourth quarter. Green Bay will win, but I'm not sure how easy it will be.