Daily Norseman
The NFL’s toughest division is likely to remain so
The Minnesota Vikings are part of the toughest division in pro football - the NFC North- and based on all the coaching changes and roster moves and schedule changes and return from injuries, there is a lot to assess within the division ahead of the 2025-26 season.
Oddsmakers have summed it up with their current odds for each NFC North team to win their division. These odds are representative:
Detroit Lions +150
Green Bay Packers +260
Minnesota Vikings +300
Chicago Bears +450
Draftkings has the Vikings’ odds at +400 (4/1) but just about everywhere else has them at or close to +300. Lions and Packers odds are about the same everywhere, while the Bears’ odds range from +425 to +550.
While I can see where these odds are coming from, and allowing for the fact that Packers’ odds are often more optimistic than others this time of year, (Packers were -170 preseason in 2022, +220 in 2023, and +225 in 2024) perhaps driven by betting handle (odds shorten with greater betting volume) there is a strong case to be made for an even tighter odds grouping than is currently the case- and the NFC North is already the tightest or second-tightest division from top to bottom in the odds markets for division winner.
Let’s take a closer look team by team.
The Bears continue to make major changes as they try to change their losing ways.
This off-season there was a coaching regime change as Matt Eberflus was fired mid-season a year ago. The Bears signed leading head coaching candidate Ben Johnson, former offensive coordinator of the Lions, as their new head coach and de facto offensive coordinator and play caller. Defensively they brought in Dennis Allen as defensive coordinator after he was fired mid-season last year as head coach of the Saints.
Johnson began his NFL career in Miami, where he spent six years as an assistant position coach before becoming wide receiver coach in year seven. He then moved to Detroit to take an offensive quality control job, then tight end coach job for two seasons before being promoted to offensive coordinator under Dan Campbell. He’s developed a reputation as an innovative offensive play caller that put him atop the list of head coaching candidates the last couple of years. Johnson brought quarterback coach J.T. Barrett with him from Detroit to serve in the same role, and Broncos tight end coach Declan Doyle to be his offensive coordinator.
The Bears also made big investments in their offensive personnel, upgrading their entire interior offensive line, and drafting TE Colston Loveland 10th overall and WR Luther Burden III 39th overall. Burden replaces Keenan Allen.
Both the coaching changes and the offensive roster investments are designed to help last year’s #1 overall pick Caleb Williams overcome a disappointing rookie year and become the Bears’ first real franchise quarterback since the Jazz Age....
