Besides the obvious Super Bowl contenders like the Los Angeles Rams, Denver Broncos, and others, could we see some dark-horse teams emerging when 2026 begins?
It's possible, and while the Super Bowl is typically won by the most stable franchises, there is always a chance that a team comes out of nowhere and makes it to the big game.
Ahead of the regular season beginning, we've argued for three potential Super Bowl dark-horse teams for the 2026 campaign.
3 Super Bowl dark-horse teams for the 2026 NFL Season
Minnesota Vikings
For all the drama that has surrounded the Minnesota Vikings this year, what if this team is... good?
Minnesota back-doored their way into a 9-8 record last year despite having bottom-5 quarterback play. For reference, the Vikings passers combined to throw 17 touchdowns against 21 interceptions. Enter, Kyler Murray.
While Murray isn't great, the personnel situation on offense for 2025 is absolutely the best he's had in his career, as he spent the first chunk of his career with the Arizona Cardinals, a hardly functional NFL franchise.
I'd also add that Murray from this offseason is a better QB than Sam Darnold was when he started for the Vikings back in 2024. There is a path for Murray to play the best football of his career, and with the Vikings always having an efficient defense with Brian Flores at the helm, they may soon emerge as one of the more complete teams in the sport.
Dallas Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys had the 7th-ranked scoring offense in the NFL last year but had one of the worst defenses in the league. Obviously, revamping the defense was the main point of emphasis this offseason, and that is absolutely what Dallas did.
Even if the Cowboys defense now ranks 16th in the league in points allowed per game, having a top-10 offense would give Dallas one of the more complete teams in the league, and this team still did manage to win seven games last year despite having a bottom-tier unit on defense.
While the playoffs haven't been kind to Dallas since the 90s, the Cowboys may soon check all the boxes in 2026. And while the Cowboys tend to be on the receiving end of jokes, I don't see why 2026 has to fall in line with the other early exit playoff seasons this team has had.
Cincinnati Bengals
The Cincinnati Bengals did make the Super Bowl in the 2021 season, but that's now five years ago, so this is definitely a 'dark-horse' Super Bowl team, as they also have not been to the playoffs since the 2022 season. Like the Cowboys, the Bengals overhauled the defense this offseason but already had a top-notch offense.
And we have seen Bengals QB Joe Burrow show up big-time in the playoffs. He owns a 5-2 playoff record, so this is someone who comes alive when it matters the most. With Cincy, it's really simple; if the defense can be not horrific, it'll clear a path for the team to win double-digit games and at least make the playoffs as a Wild Card team.
We have seen this team go on multiple deep playoff runs, so as long as Cincy gets in for 2026, anything can happen.
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