The most overrated player on each Detroit Lions NFC North rival in 2022

Heading toward the 2022 season, who are the most overrated players on each of the Detroit Lions NFC North rivals?

The Detroit Lions aren’t likely to make a run at winning the NFC North this year, as the Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings remain the two best teams in the division.

With the Vikings and Chicago Bears changing coaches this year, Lions’ head coach Dan Campbell is the second-longest tenured head coach in the NFC North as he enters his second season. The Packers look a little more vulnerable after trading Davante Adams, but as long as Aaron Rodgers is around they’re all in with their long-time quarterback a year-to-year proposition.

There’s plenty of talent across the NFC North, even in Detroit now as the roster gets further built and in Chicago as they reset/rebuild.

But…which players might be overrated?

Here is the most overrated player on each of the Detroit Lions’ NFC North rivals heading into the 2022 season.

The most overrated player on each Detroit Lions NFC North rival for 2022

Minnesota Vikings: CB Patrick Peterson

It feels like longer ago than 2018 that Peterson made the last of his perennial Pro Bowl appearances as an Arizona Cardinal. But it’s clear the new regime in Minnesota values him as a veteran presence. And he did have a pretty good season in some respects last year, his first in Minnesota.

Via Pro Football Reference:
-56.6 percent completion rate allowed
-78.7 percent passer rating allowed
-6.3 yards per target allowed

When the 2022 offseason program started, Peterson made reference to it being hard to “get in a groove” when you only get “two targets a game” last season. In 13 games, he was targeted 76 times–an average of 5.8 per game. So he underestimated the “respect” he got in not being targeted by opponents, as if people can’t find it out, and his missed tackle rate (13.5 percent) was the worst he has had since Pro Football Reference started tracking it.

Different sets of data can say good or bad things about Peterson in 2021, to fit whatever you’d like to say about him. But there’s no denying his name does not match his total game anymore, and opponents don’t necessarily fear him (and they shouldn’t). From a Lions’ perspective, DJ Chark may run by Peterson more than a few times in the two games against the Vikings this season.