2. NFC North
The NFC North comes in at No. 2 in our division power rankings as training camps get rolling. The North is loaded, but the 2025 season was not how many expected the division to finish. The Chicago Bears won it with just 11 wins, but all of Green Bay, Minnesota, and Detroit won nine games, and between the 2023 and 2024 seasons, the Lions won 27 regular season games.
Recent history also tells us that it takes more than 11 wins to win the division. As recently as 2024, the 14-win Vikings finished second in the division to the 15-win Lions, for example. Furthermore, the Vikings, perhaps the biggest question mark team here, did quietly win five games in a row to end the season and went from a bottom-5 quarterback room to Kyler Murray in the QB1 spot.
And with the Bears having made the leap they did, and the Packers and Lions both clearly knowing how to win a lot of football games, the NFC North is surely going to be tough in 2026, and with the NFL in a seven-team playoff format, it is possible for an entire division to make the playoffs, and the North might be the most likely division for that to happen this year.
1. NFC West
It's not often that a 12-5 team finishes in third place in a division, but it happened in 2025, as the NFC West was and clearly is the best division in football right now. The Seattle Seahawks won it all in 2025, sporting a league-best 14-3 record, tied with Denver and New England.
The Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers were both juggernauts as well, as each team finished with 12 wins. Furthermore, all three teams won at least five home or away games, won at least seven conference games, and both Los Angeles and Seattle had point differentials of +170, which is insane.
It's hard not to look at this division as being the best in the NFL ahead of 2026, as both Los Angeles and San Francisco both brought in significant upgrades this offseason as well. All three of these top teams have made a Super Bowl appearance since 2021, and I am not sure many would be shocked if any of these three teams were in the Super Bowl this year.
The Arizona Cardinals could not be more of a non-factor, but that does not take away from how loaded the rest of the division is.
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