The NFL preseason is underway, which means our time to make predictions is running out.
Mercifully, we're going to have more real football to react to in the very near future, but there is still plenty of time to put some receipts out in the universe. One of the most fascinating things every season is seeing which teams around the league can steal playoff spots from the squads that made it to the dance last season.
The NFC looks absolutely loaded entering the 2026 season. The NFC North didn't have a single team with a losing record. The NFC West included three teams with 12 or more wins. Even though it went to a team with a losing record, the NFC North came down to the wire. And we have plenty of improved teams in 2026.
Who are the top 3 teams in the NFC to watch out for as teams that could steal playoff spots this upcoming season?
3 NFC teams poised to steal playoff spots in the 2026 NFL season
1. New Orleans Saints
The New Orleans Saints are seemingly everyone's favorite potential breakout team in the NFC this year. The football world seems to be approaching the Saints with a healthy level of cautious optimism, and justifiably so.
The ingredients all seem to be there for this Saints team.
They have a really solid defense, they made a ton of strides last season, they have a good nucleus of young talent, they made some key veteran additions (Travis Etienne, Kaden Elliss, David Edwards) this offseason, and most importantly: They've got a quarterback.
We can't know for certain how Tyler Shough will progress this season, but most of the reports coming out of Saints camp seem to indicate that things are looking pretty darn good.
2. Detroit Lions
After winning 15 games in the 2024 season, the Detroit Lions were one of the NFL's truly massive disappointments of the 2025 season.
The Lions won just 9 games last season, missing the playoffs entirely.
You just can't expect that to happen again in 2026 if you're the rest of the NFC North, which as we mentioned before, didn't have a single team with a losing record last season. The Bears and Packers both made it to the playoffs last season, but the Lions are going to be coming back for one of those spots this season.
The margin for error in the NFC North is razor-thin, but the Lions have way too many of the key ingredients to be not only a playoff team but a championship team. We'll see if the (necessary) changes they made at offensive coordinator, bringing in Drew Petzing, can make the type of difference they need.
3. Dallas Cowboys
It just proves the depth of the depth of the NFC this upcoming season, but it was a truly difficult decision to go with the Cowboys here over the likes of the Minnesota Vikings, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and maybe even the Atlanta Falcons.
The Cowboys might have a top 3 offense in the entire NFC, and they just need that defense to take a step forward in 2026 so they can actually compete.
Dallas had arguably the worst defense in football all of last season, and if they were even league average on a week-to-week basis, they could have made it past the Wild Card round of the postseason.
Assuming that offense continues to play at the high level we've seen, new defensive coordinator Christian Parker has a revamped and reloaded unit that will be motivated and playing with a chip on their shoulders this season.
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