NFC North, NFC West Power Rankings: Breaking Down the NFL’s Toughest Divisions for 2026
Training camps open across the league later this month, and two divisions look built to decide the NFC’s path to Super Bowl LXI: the North and the West. Both groups return contenders from 2025, both added star power this offseason, and both could realistically send three teams to the playoffs.
Here’s how each division sorts out heading into 2026.
NFC North: Four Teams, Zero Pushovers
All four NFC North teams finished with winning records in 2025 — only the second time that’s happened in any NFL division since realignment in 2002, according to ESPN. That parity carried straight into the offseason.
1. Chicago Bears
Chicago enters camp as the reigning division champion for the first time since 2018, having gone from last place in 2024 to first in Ben Johnson’s debut season as head coach. Quarterback Caleb Williams is the clear engine of that turnaround, and ESPN’s Courtney Cronin notes he’s heading into a third season many view as a potential breakout, or “cusp of superstardom” campaign, per Sports Illustrated’s offseason report card.
The Bears didn’t have a quiet offseason on the roster margins. They lost turnover-machine safety Kevin Byard and linebacker Tremaine Edmunds — a combined 16 interceptions gone from last year’s defense — plus traded receiver DJ Moore to Buffalo and watched center Drew Dalman abruptly retire. In their place: safeties Coby Bryant and Dillon Thieneman, linebacker Devin Bush, and center Garrett Bradbury, who steps in as presumptive starter but could be pushed by rookie Logan Jones during camp.
The bigger question is whether the defense — 23rd in points allowed and 29th in total defense last season, per ESPN — can hold up well enough for Williams and Johnson’s offense to keep doing the heavy lifting.
2. Detroit Lions
Detroit’s 2025 season is the cautionary tale hanging over the rest of the division. After winning back-to-back division titles in 2023 and 2024, the Lions lost both coordinators to head coaching jobs — Johnson to Chicago, Aaron Glenn to the Jets — and cratered to 9-8, missing the playoffs. Quarterback Jared Goff was sacked 38 times as an offensive line that lost longtime center Frank Ragnow to retirement fell apart in-season.
Detroit spent the offseason rebuilding that line specifically: new starting center Cade Mays, depth additions in Larry Borom and Ben Bartch, guard Juice Scruggs acquired in a trade that sent running back David Montgomery to Houston, and rookie tackle Blake Miller drafted to potentially allow Penei Sewell to kick over to left tackle. New offensive coordinator Drew Petzing, hired away from Arizona, takes over play-calling from John Morton, who lost that role partway through last season.
On paper, Detroit’s skill talent — Goff, Jahmyr Gibbs, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Sam LaPorta — plus a defense fronted by Aidan Hutchinson still stacks up with anyone in the division. Oddsmakers agree: the Lions carry the highest win-total over/under in the North at 10.5, per VSiN. The margin between Detroit’s 2024 ceiling and 2025 floor came down to health and line play. Both look meaningfully better addressed heading into camp.
3. Green Bay Packers
Green Bay’s offseason was defined as much by absence as addition. Star pass rusher Micah Parsons, acquired last September, tore his ACL and meniscus last December and is expected to open camp on the physically unable to perform list — likely ruling him out for the first four to six games. The Packers also didn’t have a first-round pick in April, a residual cost of the Parsons trade, and didn’t select until No. 52.
Green Bay used what it had to retool the defense around the eventual return of Parsons, hiring former Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon as defensive coordinator and adding defensive tackle Javon Hargrave. On offense, the Packers extended receivers Jayden Reed and Christian Watson, giving quarterback Jordan Love a receiving trio with 2025 first-rounder Matthew Golden that the team believes can each carve out real roles. Tight end Tucker Kraft, who tore his ACL last November, is targeting a Week 1 return.
The Packers have made the playoffs three straight years as the NFC’s No. 7 seed. Whether that ceiling moves depends heavily on how the defense survives the first month without its best player.
4. Minnesota Vikings
Minnesota’s offseason opened in turmoil: the team fired general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah in late January, forcing an interim front-office structure through the draft. The Vikings also traded away 28-year-old pass rusher Jonathan Greenard rather than meet his extension ask, part of a broader financial reset after years of heavy spending, according to ESPN.
The move that defines Minnesota’s season, though, is the arrival of quarterback Kyler Murray, signed after Arizona released him. Murray will compete with 2024 first-round pick J.J. McCarthy for the starting job — a competition that could determine whether last year’s nine-win team, which had zero quarterback stability, finally has enough at the position to match its talent everywhere else. Defensive coordinator Brian Flores’ unit remains one of the league’s better pressure groups, but the Vikings will need far more consistency under center to turn talent into a division title.
NFC West: The Rams’ Blockbuster Changes Everything
The NFC West runs through Los Angeles this year — and it wasn’t close before the Rams made the single biggest move of the NFL offseason.
1. Los Angeles Rams
On June 1, the Rams and Browns agreed to a trade sending two-time Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett to Los Angeles for pass rusher Jared Verse and a package of future draft picks, according to NFL.com. Garrett, who set the NFL’s single-season sack record with 23 in 2025, is a five-time first-team All-Pro who ESPN’s Bill Barnwell called one of the most productive defensive players in the league, regardless of MVP votes he never got playing in Cleveland.
Cleveland had insisted for months it wouldn’t trade its franchise cornerstone. That changed once the Browns restructured Garrett’s contract in March, pushing his option-bonus payment dates closer to the season and widening the trade window. The Rams sent back Verse, a 2027 first-round pick, a 2028 second-rounder and a 2029 third-rounder that becomes a first-rounder if Garrett is ever moved to another AFC North team, per ESPN’s reporting on the deal’s structure.
The trade came on top of an already aggressive offseason in Los Angeles, which addressed a leaky secondary by adding cornerback Jaylen Watson and All-Pro corner Trent McDuffie away from Kansas City. Add reigning NFL MVP Matthew Stafford and one of the league’s most explosive offenses, and the Rams enter camp as a clear Super Bowl LXI favorite — built to win now, with rookie quarterback Ty Simpson as the long-term succession plan.
2. Seattle Seahawks
The defending Super Bowl LX champions return most of what made them the league’s best story last season. Quarterback Sam Darnold is back after a second straight strong year, as is reigning Offensive Player of the Year Jaxon Smith-Njigba. The Seahawks did lose Super Bowl MVP running back Kenneth Walker III to Kansas City in free agency, which general manager John Schneider addressed by spending a first-round pick on Notre Dame running back Jadarian Price.
Some regression should be expected from any defending champion. But Seattle’s core — quarterback, top receiver, coaching staff — is intact, and the roster losses are more replaceable than the ones its division rivals absorbed.
3. San Francisco 49ers
San Francisco has reached the playoffs in four of the last five seasons despite a roster that’s fought through significant injury issues, including last year’s run to the Divisional Round. The 49ers spent this offseason adding to quarterback Brock Purdy’s supporting cast, signing receiver Mike Evans away from Tampa Bay and adding Christian Kirk to give Purdy weapons beyond tight end George Kittle. Linebacker Dre Greenlaw also returned to San Francisco after a difficult season in Denver.
If the 49ers can stay healthier than they have the last two years, this looks like a roster capable of pushing further than the Divisional Round. The problem: both teams that finished ahead of them in the division a year ago got stronger too.
4. Arizona Cardinals
Arizona is in a different phase entirely — a rebuild under new head coach Mike LaFleur, with veteran Jacoby Brissett projected as the Week 1 starter and third-round rookie Carson Beck waiting in the wings. The Cardinals do have real offensive talent to build around: tight end Trey McBride, receiver Marvin Harrison Jr., and 2026 third overall pick Jeremiyah Love, the explosive Notre Dame running back who drew Heisman consideration last season.
Defensively, tackle Walter Nolen and 2025 second-round cornerback Will Johnson both have star-level upside if they can stay on the field — injuries have followed both dating back to college. The talent is there. The division around them, unfortunately for Arizona, is not offering any easy weeks.
Where This Leaves the NFC
Two divisions, eight teams, and a realistic case that five or six of them make the playoffs. The Rams’ trade for Garrett reshapes the entire conference’s power structure heading into camp — but Detroit’s rebuilt offensive line, Minnesota’s quarterback gamble, and Seattle’s attempt to defend a title all carry enough weight to make both the North and West must-watch races from Week 1 on.