The 2026 NFL offseason is progressing right along, and with the NFL schedule on the very near horizon, we've officially reached the time of year where it feels like football is officially about to start creeping its way back into everyone's lives.
With the offseason moving along, now feels like a great time to take a look back at every move teams have made throughout free agency, the NFL Draft, and obviously in the coaching realm as well.
Considering how things went last season, coaching changes that have been made, trades, free agent pickups, and draft picks, our latest NFL Power Rankings are going to take a closer look at every defense in the NFC and how they stack up against each other on paper. Will anybody be able to dethrone the reigning Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks for the #1 overall spot?
NFL Power Rankings: Seattle Seahawks fending off rivals for top defense in the NFC
16. Arizona Cardinals
Even with Jonathan Gannon's defensive expertise, the Arizona Cardinals had one of the worst defenses in the NFL in almost every metric last season. And the question at this point is -- how have they gotten better in 2026?
The answer to that is, honestly, they haven't done much. The Cardinals brought in Roy Lopez and Andrew Wingard. They drafted one of my top Day 3 sleepers in Kaleb Proctor, but those are minor moves at best.
This is a unit that ranked 29th in pressures, 29th in points allowed, 27th in yards allowed, and the roster is not upgraded. Defensive coordinator Nick Rallis has his work cut out for him.
15. Chicago Bears
It feels a little harsh to have the Chicago Bears this low on the NFC defensive rankings, but last year's team caught lightning in a bottle, and it may not have been anything more than that.
Despite the fact that they were opportunistic and led the league in takeaways (which is a big deal), the Bears ranked 23rd in points allowed, 29th in total yards allowed, 25th in QB hits, 28th in tackles for loss, and 24th in total QB pressures.
With that in mind, you would think that this team invested a ton to get better on the defensive front, right? Wrong. The Bears shockingly did nothing to upgrade their defense off the edge. They made minimal improvements on the interior defensive line. They also lost a host of players that accounted for the lion's share of their interceptions last season (Kevin Byard, Nahshon Wright, Tremaine Edmunds, CJ Gardner-Johnson, Jaquan Brisker).
Add us as a preferred source on Google